For more than 20 years Bill Riley and Bruce Ferris have devoted themselves to the success of SPARK Product Development. As we plan for the next 25 years and beyond the time has come to expand our leadership team. We are proud to announce that Philip O’Connor is being promoted to Managing Partner and will be an essential member of our leadership team and ownership going forward.
When we first welcomed Phil to our team back in December 2020 we knew he would become an integral part of our continued success and long-term legacy and this is an important step in bringing that to fruition. During these last two years Phil’s passion for problem solving and fresh perspective has injected new energy and ideas into the SPARK team resulting in operational efficiencies, company growth, and happier customers.
In this role Phil will continue to be hyper-focused on the client experience while also taking over the lion’s share of the operational responsibilities like marketing, human resources, and finance. This, in turn, will afford Bruce and Bill more time to be intimately involved in the engineering aspect of projects, which is what they love and do best.
Phil brings a core set of skills and experience that are the perfect balance to Bruce and Bill’s technical expertise. Phil’s knack for connecting with people and curious nature will serve him well as he assumes additional responsibilities with our team. He is no stranger to client relations and business development. During his time at Aerotek Phil was responsible for technical recruiting and talent management, where he discovered a passion for the field of engineering. As Executive Director of the College of Engineering Foundation and Corporate Relations at VCU Phil gained rich experience in fundraising, developing partnerships, managing a portfolio with over $115 million in total assets, leading teams, and developing non-credit educational training programs.
While Phil may not be a trained engineer, he certainly knows how to hold his own around a table with techies and PhDs. Phil isn’t shy about sharing that engineers are his people because as he puts it, “they are a talented and fascinating group of people who care deeply about their profession, constantly giving back their time and knowledge to the next generation. They do for a living what they went to school for, which is a rarity these days.” Needless to say he is right at home here at SPARK and welcomes every opportunity to learn and grow with colleagues and customers.
Please join us in congratulating Phil on his new role. He’s reeling with ideas on how to further improve SPARK and would love to hear your thoughts too.
Phil’s contact information:
Email: poconnor@sparkpd.com
Office: 804.440.5700
Mobile: 804.229.7827