Do you have the guts to leave your career for something that you’ve always wanted to do?
As in the case of Kristen Phillips, the opportunity came at the right time for her to step away from an executive level position in the insurance sector.
Phillips, 40, will take the helm of Hartford Symphony Orchestra as its new executive director on April 21, a real leap from her position as vice president at Lincoln Financial Group. It’s the first time she’s stepped away from the corporate world in her career.
“It’s one of those things I feel is meant to be, and my calling,” Phillips said. “I might have upset the order of things but it was the right time.”
The West Hartford resident grew up in Houston, TX and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics from Texas A&M University. She received her master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Phillips started off as a budget analyst in the Office of Management and Budget in Washington, D.C. and then joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as a management consultant.
“After two years I was hankering to move back to Texas,” Phillips said. “The life of a consultant is lived out of a suitcase on the road and I was tired of the travel.”
She settled into the insurance industry at AIG/American General in Houston and the Lincoln Financial Group. At the time, music was just a side hobby as Phillips took piano lessons and sang first in the Houston Symphony Chorus and then in the Hartford Chorale.
“I always thought at some point that I would engage in a second career that was more intrinsically rewarding,” Phillips said. “I knew I would eventually hang up my corporate shoes.”
Her four-year post as board member at the symphony brought her in touch with the organization’s financial situation. The acting chief operating officer, Ken Jacobson, and key stakeholders in the nonprofit offered her the position.
“We have to move forward in re-establishing ourselves as an ongoing cultural pillar of Hartford,” she said. “I plan on fully executing the plain laid out to help the organization flourish and grow.”
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Emily Boisvert is a Hartford Business Journal staff writer.
