Ted Phillips, who has served as the Bears’ president and CEO since 1999, will retire in February, the team said Friday.
The Bears have already begun looking for his successor and have hired executive search firm Nolan Partners.
Phillips is the fourth president in team history — and the only one not related to founder George Halas. His son “Mugs” Halas held the job, followed by grandson Michael McCaskey. Phillips replaced McCaskey after serving as vice president of operations from 1993-99. He was the team’s controller from 1983-87 and finance director from 1987-93.
“He started out with us as a financial expert,” said Bears matriarch Virginia McCaskey in a statement. “Anything that he was ever asked to take care of, he came through and did it very well. We’ve been very blessed to have him.”
Phillips’ focus was on the Bears’ business operations — he negotiated a deal to renovate Soldier Field when Michael McCaskey could not, although the Bears have since decided that playing at the lakefront stadium is not acceptable. McCaskey and Phillips led the Bears’ search for land upon which to build a new stadium. The Bears agreed to a $197.2 million purchase agreement for the former Arlington Racecourse site last year. The team is in escrow, which is expected to close before Phillips retires.
The Bears won only three playoff games during Phillips’ tenure. His presence at Bears’ season-ending press conferences, explaining football decisions, irked some fans.
“Have we gotten the quarterback situation completely right? No,” Phillips said in January 2021 after the Bears decided to retain coach Matt Nagy and GM Ryan Pace. “Have we won enough games? No. Everything else is there.”
Phillips’ pending retirement seemed to be a possibility in January, when chairman George McCaskey said that, in a change, new general manager Ryan Poles would report to him and not Phillips. McCaskey said at the time that Phillips would be able to focus on the Arlington Heights project.
McCaskey did not change the fundamental structure of Halas Hall then — and it’s unclear whether he will do so when hiring Phillips’ replacement. When the Bears install a new president/CEO for the first time in 24 years, they’ll have an opportunity to modernize their structure, separating the business side of the franchise from the football side. McCaskey, though, has resisted calls to do so in the past.
Organizational information gleaned from the Bears’ lengthy general manager interview process — they talked to 13 candidates — could inform how they Bears proceed in hiring Phillips’ replacement. One GM candidate at the time, Steelers vice president of football and business administration Omar Khan, had a resume that seemed more in line with Phillips’ job than the vacant GM post. The Steelers, though, named Khan general manager four months later.
Hiring a president from outside Halas Hall, though, would be a first in Bears history.
Whomever the Bears hire to replace Phillips will inherit the most challenging — and exciting — business opportunity in franchise history. The Bears want to build a mixed-use stadium site that they called “one of the largest development projects in Illinois state history” in a release Thursday. They will hold a public meeting to detail some of those plans on Thursday.
