David Wendell Phillips is an American lawyer, businessman and investor. He is an angel investor in Silicon Valley, an experienced Internet executive, entrepreneur, and attorney. He has served in several leadership roles over the past 20 years with companies such as AOL, AOL Europe, iCrunch.com/Music Choice, Napster/Bertelsmann, IGN Entertaimnet/Fox Interactive, NaturalPath Media/Six Apart, and, SideCar Technologies.
Phillips' career in law started in 1988 at Hogan & Hartson. In 1991, he went on to serve as a Corporate Counsel & Business Development Attorney at ComTech Systems. In 1993, he joined the law firm of Cameron & Hornbostel in Washington, D.C., specializing in international trade and technology law.
Tech career
In 1994, David Phillips began his career in the growing internet field, when he joined America Online as its second lawyer. There he delved deeply into emerging web issues ranging from data privacy and copyright to first amendment issues. . In 1997, Phillips moved to London to join AOL’s joint venture with German Media Conglomerate, Bertelsmann AG. He served first as AOL UK General Counsel, then becoming the General Counsel of AOL Europe, reporting to Heinz Wermellinger in Zug Switzerland. After AOL and Bertelsmann AG acquired CompuServe and Netscape in Europe, Phillips transitioned to a business general management roll as Managing Director of AOL UK. Phillips left AOL in January 2000 to become CEO of UK digital music pioneer, Crunch Music In 2002 Phillips served as a senior executive at Napster. From 2005-2006, Phillips served as the Executive Vice President of Corporate Development & General Counsel at IGN Entertainment. During his tenure as EVP, David Phillips helped IGN acquire and integrate five digital entertainment companies and execute IGN's sale to News Corp in 2005 for $650 million. In 2006, Phillips left IGN to become the founder and CEO of NaturalPath Media, which became the largest green ad network in the US, and was acquired by Six Apart in 2009 Since 2010, Phillips has been an active angel investor and advisor in the Silicon Valley startup community where he has invested between $10,000 and $50,000 per investment deal. Notable investments include: Motion Math, Massive Health, Talkable, Postling, Ekso Bionics, Say Media, Onfleet, Rock Health V5 Fund, Haystack TV, Shuddle, SONR Labs, and FocusAtWill. David Phillips joined Joe Born in 2011 to found , a provider of Android audio peripherals. Phillips served as the Company’s first CEO and now serves on its Board of the Company that now does business as . Between 2012 and 2014, Phillips served as SideCar Technologies's Executive Vice-President For Policy & General Counsel. In 2017, Phillips joined as Head of Corporate Development.
Awards and Recognitions
• The Pomona College George S. Burgess Award in Constitutional Law. The George S. Burgess Prize is awarded to the student earning the highest grade in constitutional law. • Rotary Club Professional Fellowship to Brazil in 1991. • American Bar Association, Chairman, Cyberspace Committee January 1995 - November 1996.
Published works
Recommendations for the Evolution of Netlaw: Protecting Privacy in a Digital Age Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Web-Linking Agreements: Contracting Strategies and Model Provisions. Riding Giants: Surfing the next great waves of the Internet - Silicon Valley comes to Oxford 2013.
