Campaign Cabinet
Philip Ryan
BS, Industrial Engineering ’78
“My engineering degree meant a tremendous amount to me. There’s a process around analytics, decision-making, and problem solving that has been useful to me my entire career. After practicing as an engineer, I went on to get my MBA and spent my career in finance and business; but it’s clear that my engineering background has played a central role in everything I’ve done.”
Philip K. Ryan was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Swiss Re America Holding Corporation in October 2012, and also joined the Board of Directors of Swiss Re Ltd, the parent company of the Swiss Re Group, in April 2015 and is Chairman of the Finance and Risk Committee. Phillip is also an executive in residence at NYU Stern School of Business.
Prior to Swiss Re, Phillip served as chief financial officer of the Power Corporation of Canada from 2008-2012. Power is a diversified holding company with interests in life insurance, wealth management, and asset management. In that position, Phillip was also a director of IGM Financial, Great-West Lifeco and several of their subsidiaries, including Putnam Investments.
For more than 23 years, Phillip held various positions with Credit Suisse, a global financial services Company domiciled in Switzerland. He served as Chairman of the Financial Institutions Group (UK), Chief Financial Officer of Credit Suisse Group (Switzerland), Chief Financial Officer of Credit Suisse Asset Management (UK), and Managing Director of CSFB Financial Institutions Group (USA/UK). He left Credit Suisse in 2008.
Phillip earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Illinois and an MBA from the Indiana University Kelley School of Graduate Business. He is involved in many charitable activities including the Smithsonian National Board.