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Photograph by Jacquelyn Ramseyer
Clare Phillips, employee relations manager at AMD, recently received the 2001 Athena Award from the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce in honor of her professional excellence and community service in working with women.
Wise Woman
Clare Phillips received the Athena Award for her tireless contributions
By Jana Seshadri
Clare Phillips exemplifies professional excellence, community service and tireless work for the betterment of women. It's not a stretch to believe that she would receive an award named after the Greek goddess of wisdom and courage, Athena.
The Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce chose to recognize and honor Phillips with the Athena Award, which is given to those who emplify community service and professional excellence throughout the country yearly.
"I think it's a wonderful acknowledgement for the work I do," Phillips said.
Her professional experience, which ranges from the corporate world to the nonprofit sector, demonstrates her dedication to serving people. Wherever Phillips, 58, has worked or volunteered, her peers say she has improved conditions for the employer and employee.
As associate director of multicultural development in the office of the president of Stanford University, Phillips developed and implemented the university's government compliance and community-outreach strategy, and initiated the employee recognition and reward program. Phillips also designed and implemented the Affirmative Action plans and the American Disabilities Act policies.
"This is a person who has tried very, very hard to work for the community for several years," said Dr. Philip Ong, president of the Board of Directors of Sunnyvale Community Services, the largest nonprofit organization in Sunnyvale.
An established international organization, the Athena Foundation is dedicated to creating leadership opportunities for women, and the Athena Award programs recognize individuals on local, national and international levels for their professional excellence and dedication to community service. According to Chamber president and CEO Suzi Blackman, the Sunnyvale Chamber has always chosen women to be recipients of the Athena. The foundation originated in Lansing, Mich., in 1980, and the first Athena was presented in 1982.
"Clare is just a wonderful recipient with a very broad influence," Blackman said.
Many of her co-workers say much of Phillips' strength lies in her efficiency when working with people.
"She's very strategic," said Jan Masaoka, executive director of CompassPoint Nonprofit Sources, which is a management consulting firm for nonprofit organizations. "Talking to her about any problem helps--she asks very clarifying questions."
Phillips has maintained a balance between human resource management and corporate management. As business manager of Stanford University Hospital, Phillips had management responsibility for the largest profit center in the hospital. While handling a more than than $15 million budget, Phillips said she set up productivity standards and implemented an information system to capture all revenue. Reducing staff turnover from 30 percent to 5 percent, Phillips developed management assessment tools for supervisors, college relations and recruiting programs.
"Clare is very well-thought-of in the business world," Blackman said. "She is an outstanding business person."
Since 1993, Phillips has been a member of the NOVA Workforce Board, and has volunteered as the chairwoman since 1998. NOVA, which is located in Sunnyvale, is formed by the city councils of seven consortium cities. The NOVA Workforce Board sets the policy and direction for its development services, which it provides to local businesses and job seekers. Director Mike Curran attributes NOVA's complete transformation and increase in board representation from 18 to 33 members to Phillips' leadership and innovative approach to business.
"Clare is an example of someone who helped our organization understand the changes in business needs and practices," Curran said.
"Clare has a very high position in a big corporation, but still reaches out to the community on her own time," Masaoka said.
Phillips takes on all this extra work despite her full-time responsibilities as employee-relations manager at Advanced Micro Devices. Phillips said she is responsible for maintaining employee well-being, as well as supervising the different functions of employee relations, like policy and procedure and diversity management.
Phillips has been a member and president of the board of SCS, which helps low-income families and seniors to avoid homelessness and hunger as well as to obtain otherwise unaffordable medical, prescription and other critical services. Through the economic downturn of this year, Phillips' leadership helped the group focus its time and resources by raising and distributing 50 percent more financial aid--$150,000 more in 2000-2001 than it did the year before.
Phillips volunteered for more than 10 years at United Way, on a variety of policy-making committees, most prominently as the chair of the Community Initiatives Committee for six years, when she developed the process for assessing changing community needs and selected community projects for funding.
Phillips said she considers all her past experiences in the corporate and nonprofit worlds as excellent training for her future aspirations. She continues to dedicate her time and energy to her long-standing passion--the non profit arena, to which she would like to dedicate her time totally in the future.
"Personally, someday I would love to be in the nonprofit world," Phillips said. "The rewards of serving people are great, and there is so much joy in that."
Phillips said that in a corporate world, one gets and feels removed from the real people.
"Clare really is real--she connects," Masaoka said. "She doesn't have her own agenda."
Phillips was a founding member of the Silicon Valley Partnership, which focused on eliminating the digital divide and helped women realize their potential in the workplace. Phillips also served on the Board of Directors of Leadership California, which promotes skills, visibility and advancement of women. She served two terms on both the Santa Clara County Human Relations Commission and Sunnyvale's Housing and Human Services Commission, which Phillips chaired.
"The Athena Award took into account everything that I've done in the past," Phillips said.
The Pearson Automobile Company in Sunnyvale has been the funding sponsor of the Athena Award for six years.
"We're proud to be a part of it--to recognize the exemplary women in our society," said owner Mark Balestra. "I have two daughters myself, and it's important for them to have role models."
"Clare's contributions are like the contribution that salt makes to a dish," Masaoka said. "She is necessary, transformative, doesn't call attention to herself, makes everyone else look good, unifies flavors, brings out the sweetness from unexpected sources and is always dressed simply and elegantly."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
