Photo by John B. Warters

In November of 2022, 33-year-old Phillip Jones (MPA/MBA 2021) was elected mayor of Newport News, Virginia, where he had spent part of his childhood. The son of two Air Force veterans, he served six years in the Marines before enrolling in the joint degree program at HBS and the Kennedy School, moving to Newport News after graduation and serving on the city planning commission before launching his successful run for office.

A meticulous planner, Jones’s agenda for the first 100 days in office was scrambled just a few days before he was sworn in, when a six-year-old boy brought a gun to school and shot his first grade teacher.

In this episode of Skydeck, Jones talks to contributor April White about what it means to be a leader in a moment of crisis, how he hopes to turn around his city, and what the work of a mayor really looks like.

READ MORE

April White: I want to start this conversation at what I imagine was a particularly challenging moment for your community and for you. This is early January. It's a few days before you're inaugurated as mayor of Newport News, and you get what I'm sure had to be a shocking phone call. Can you tell me what happened next?

Phillip Jones: I had gone for a run in the middle of the day. I came back and both of my phones—my personal phone and my city phone—had about 12 missed calls each, all from the city manager. Honestly, my first thought was that a nuclear reactor had gone off. Newport News, we're known because we build all of the aircraft carriers and about 30 percent of all submarines. And so immediately I thought a ship has been attacked or blown up. She called me, and she said, listen, there's been a six-year-old that was involved in a shooting, and I thought that she had said it's a sixth grader. And so I assumed, you know what? It's probably an accident. And she said, no, it's someone that is six years old, it's a first grader. And we think it was on purpose. And immediately I grabbed a sports coat and went to Richneck Elementary.

AW: What are the responsibilities of a leader at a moment like that?

PJ: I think the majority of my leadership training comes from my time that I spent in the Marine Corps as an infantry officer. We were always taught that the leader should be at the point of friction and that it should be some form of servant leadership. And so that day for my city, the point of friction was the elementary school. I went down there and immediately connected with the police chief, talked to the school board members as well as city council that started to arrive. And then from there we had to calm the parents down. In that moment, they needed the comforter in chief and that's what myself and my colleagues tried to do for our city.

AW: This was something that made national news when it happened, and I know that in your city, this is not a one-day event. This is something that continues to impact the community. So tell me about the next day and the day after that.

PJ: To be honest, that entire weekend was a blur. I think I did seven or eight primetime interviews, BBC, CNN, Fox News, et cetera. We would do the interviews in the morning and then in the evening we would try to go by the hospital or check in with the school board, the superintendent, the teachers.

I think about four or five days later, I had my first decision as mayor. The head of the school board called—and in Virginia and in a lot of other states, the school board is independently elected, and also the school board does not have the power to tax—so she called and said, listen, the teachers are saying they do not want to go back to school across the entire district unless there are metal detectors in every school and we don't have the funds to do that. Can you dip into your emergency funds for city council and can you provide about $1 million in addition to our current budget to support every single school having metal detectors? And so it was our first decision. I called around the city council because as a body, we vote together: one mayor, six city council members. And it was seven-zero that we were going to support the schools. And so that was sort of our first decision point.

And actually about three days later, something happened that I will never forget. We're about to give the first press conference after the events, and I get a call from my executive assistant and she says, “Hey, I have Secretary Buttigieg on the line. He's asking for your personal cell phone, should I give it to him?”

And I was like, yes, you should definitely give it to him. And he called about five minutes before I went live and he said, listen, I watched the CNN interview, we're proud of you. You're doing a good job. And right now what you're about to do is outside the scope of being a mayor. It is not in your job description, but right now they need someone to bring their community together. They need someone to comfort them, and that is your role and that is why you're in this position. And he said, if you need me, I'm here for you. And I really appreciate that. He called as well as the governor and others, but him calling five minutes before I went live is something I'll never forget.

AW: Secretary Buttigieg was talking to you about the role of mayor, so let’s talk about that. How do you think about the job? What is your job description?

PJ: There's so many different types of mayor in the United States and abroad. In its formal position, you sit in the middle, you help to craft policies and procedures, you set the vision for your city, you approve, at least for us, a $1.1 billion operating budget for the fiscal year. But I think the true power of the mayor is that when I call a meeting, people will show up. So I have the power to convene. Additionally, whatever the mayor deems is important, that shines a pseudo spotlight on it.

AW: And why was this a job you wanted? Why this job? Why this city?

PJ: I'm from Newport News, so that's a very easy answer. My parents still live here. This is where I bought my first house. I've always said that Newport News, we're the fifth largest city in Virginia, we are on the national map. We build all these aircraft carriers. We have Jefferson Lab, we have NASA right next door, but we haven't quite figured out how to put all the pieces together. Our population's been sort of stagnant and flat for a couple of years. It's an aging population. And so when you go back to HBS and you think “you have one wild life, how are you going to spend it?” I want to spend it in service of my community.

My parents, they're pastors and I've always been raised that you have to give back. That's the true meaning of service and of life on this earth. And I thought it was my responsibility and I knew the current mayor was retiring. And the motto that I've always tried to live by is if not me, then who? And if not now, then when? I was young, I'm still 33, but I realized now is the time to do this.

AW: You were new to electoral politics when you came in. What was your pitch to voters? What did you tell them about this brand-new face?

PJ: In every campaign, there's a sort of narrative that emerges that you can't really control. The narrative that emerged was you have a newcomer, he's young, he's aggressive. What we need right now for our city, we need someone that has some sort of business skills, someone that can represent our city, and finally someone that can elevate the narrative of Newport News on the national level, whether that's connections with the White House, whether that's the Bloomberg-Harvard program. We really needed someone to put us on the map. And I think I hit all of those different parameters. It's a majority minority congressional district. It is a heavy African-American city. It's a heavy military city. I had the business acumen and I had a heart to serve, and my team worked very, very hard. This was not a Phillip Jones campaign, this was the community. This was grassroots and we hit tens of thousands of doors over a 9-, 10-month period. But the community really came out and supported us.

AW: You spoke just now about the narrative of Newport News. Tell me what someone might think about Newport News from outside of the community and tell me what they should know about Newport News.

PJ: So before I became mayor, the moniker of Newport News was "Bad News." What I want people to know is that we are, I think outside of DC and Boston, we are the largest concentration of PhDs due to Jefferson Lab and NASA. We are on the national security map, because without aircraft carriers, there is no power projection. And Newport News is a great place to raise your family, to live, to work, and to play. And so I tell everyone, I view the role of mayor as “I am the chief ambassador. I am the chief brand officer of my city.” The first thing I did when I gave my very first speech to the Chamber of Commerce, I said, “’Bad News,’ we're no longer using that. Only good news happens in Newport News because we have to create our own narrative, our own brand, and everyone has a responsibility.” But I am the chief ambassador for Newport News.

AW: What are your priorities for this term? What are you focusing on?

PJ: I'll start sort of like any good consultant, we'll go macro to micro. At the macro level, we have to ensure that our youth have hope.

The three things that I always ran on was, number one, we need to ensure that our schools reach accreditation status. Currently, they're not fully accredited, they're partially accredited, which is not a good thing when you want people to move to your city. So number one is going to be the schools and the youth that are involved with it. Number two is going to be economic development of our city. This entire area is federally subsidized. We're never going to be rich, we're never going to be poor, just because there's five or six military bases around here. But I would love to diversify our economy. We've sort of been coasting along with the shipyard being here for a long time. I would love to bring in new businesses and new opportunities for people. Number three is our brand. When you look at Newport News, people, they'll look down on Newport News, they'll talk bad about it, but it's a great place to live. It's right on the water. It's very, very affordable. And so just trying to increase our brand and where we stand on the national map, that's really what I've been focusing on.

AW: What does that look like on a day-to-day basis? For instance, what were you dealing with today?

PJ: Unfortunately, we had a 16-year-old get shot earlier this morning. People ask me what's the worst part about being mayor is that I talk to the police chief and I said, “Anytime there's a murder in the city, you need to call me.” So I did that this morning. And then I had a talk with the Chamber of Commerce for about two hours, really talking to the key business leaders, not to get them behind my vision, but to check in and understand, "What are you going through? How can we help?”

After that, I went with the mayor of Hampton, the adjacent city, and we filmed a PSA for Habitat for Humanity. We're going to do a blitz and repair a lot of houses in our downtown community. And then I had a call with the head of human resources. We're going through a lot of transitional change with department heads and a new city manager. And then I have this call with you, and then I have two more meetings tonight. There's going to be a ribbon cutting, and then I need to prep. Tomorrow, we're going to have a very large meeting, a homelessness/unhoused individual task force meeting.

Every single day is different, but it is sort of the honor of my life to be able to serve as mayor of my hometown and to really see an impact. And you see it day to day.

AW: Let's look to the future. What does Newport News look like for you eight years from now or 10 years from now?

PJ: Success for Newport News looks like number one is we're going to be an all-American City, as recognized by the National Civic League. We've never won it. The majority of cities around us have won it at least two or three times. We are going to win that. I think an all-American City has all-American schools. So I see in the next 10 years, we are going to fully accredit all of our high schools, all of our middle schools. That is the absolute floor that has to happen. So all-American city, all-American schools, I see us bringing in not a Fortune 500, but a company that is able to have an immediate impact on the city, that is able to have local kids from the university attend, and they're able to raise their family here. And additionally, I think in 10 years, I see our airport thriving. It may not be commercial traffic, it could be general aviation, it could be a hub-and-spoke for Delta, it could be a maintenance fleet, et cetera. But I see it being a true asset to our community. And I think the most important part is, I think at the end of eight years, you're going to see Newport News reach a level of height on a national prominence that it's never seen.

AW: How about you? Where will you be in 10 years?

PJ: Yeah, I think that's the million-dollar question. What I told individuals was this: I said, I'll be 34 next month. I said, listen, I gave my twenties to the Marine Corps. I will give my thirties to Newport News.

If everything goes to plan, I'll run for a second term. I will not run for a third term. I believe in term limits. I believe that eight years is more than enough time for someone to come in and steer the ship in the right direction and make sure there's a vision. So I would love to keep serving. There's a lot of different ways that you can serve your community.

It's really important that graduates of Harvard Business School, take a look at the public sector and see where we can support one another. You don't have to be the person that runs for office; I have a lot of thought partners.

There's nothing wrong with clustering in New York, in SF, in LA, but I would say, look to the heartland of America. Look to these cities that are just under 200,000 individuals. There is a lot of opportunity here.

And I think at the end of the day, communities across the country need high-quality individuals who actually care about the community, but are able to access the best knowledge, best practices, thought leadership. All of that goes together. So I would just put a plug in, come back to local government. It's really cool down here.

Skydeck is the Harvard Business School alumni podcast, featuring interviews and insights from across the world of business. It’s produced by the External Relations Department at HBS. Our audio engineer is Craig McDonald.

It is available on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get your favorite podcasts. And If you could take a moment to rate and review us, we’d be grateful.

For more information, or to find archived episodes, visit alumni-dot-hbs-dot-edu-slash-skydeck.

Post a Comment