Article published in the Navigaator magazine 3/2007

On Tallinn Bay with the U.S. Ambassador

Katrin Kurss

The U.S. Ambassador, who has been in office for four months, is from High Point, North Carolina, about 300 kilometers from the North Atlantic coastline. This is also the place where the first boat that started the famous Hatteras trademark is from. The Ambassador's father, Earl Phillips, was one of the founders of that company.

His father taught Dave Phillips to love the sea, and he is glad that Navigaator asked him to come and sail on Tallinn Bay. The catamaran Diana is waiting on Pirita pier; it is over 12 meters long and 7 meters wide and offers all the comforts needed for ten people. Captain Raul Normak is greeting the guests, and his two crew members make sure that the Ambassador and his staff get on board safely along the narrow planked footway. Even before the yacht sets sail Phillips asks the captain whether he can rent the boat in a week to entertain his guests.

As the boat leaves the port, Public Affairs Officer Eric A. Johnson introduces the surroundings to the Ambassador - Pirita convent and the beach, the possibility to rent a boat to row on the river. Furthermore, there are the Viimsi and Miiduranna ports. Johnson is competent and precise. Ambassador admits that he hasn't had time to get to know the city that well yet. But still, it's not his first trip on the sea in Estonia. The Estonian Maritime Administration gave him a ride with their boat from Muuga to Tallinn Port to introduce him to the work principals of the ports.

“Our family loves to sail, but we don't have our own yacht,” the Ambassador says. They use a rental one for vacation trips. The most common destinations are the Caribbean Sea and the Bahamas, but they have also been to Alaska and the Mediterranean Sea – to the Greek islands, Italy, and France.

Dave Phillips is from High Point, North Carolina. His father, Earl Phillips, was a mayor of High Point in the 1940s who launched a number of companies associated with furniture. Thanks to the strong textile and furniture industry High Point is known as the world's furniture capital.

The Story of Hatteras

His love for the sea is inherited from his father. Earl Phillips loved fishing and launched a fishing club called the Hatteras Marlin Club, situated on the coast of North Carolina at Cape Hatteras. The cold Labrador Stream meets the tropical Gold Stream near that cape, making it some of the most restless waters in the Atlantic ocean, and yet it is one of the best fishing places.

At first he used the boats of local fishermen to go on the sea from Hatteras cape, but those boats couldn't handle the rough seas, and so he helped to start a boat company for fishing that they called Hatteras.

The first boat was built in an abandoned garage in High Point. It was 12.5 meters long and made from fiberglass, making it at that time the largest fiberglass boat ever built, as most of the boats then were made of wood or metal. “When the boat was ready they took it out to a city lake to see if it floated. They were so happy when it didn't sink,” recalled Dave Phillips. “I often accompanied my father to the sea. When I was a teenager I often slept in the boat while my mom and dad took a room in some nice hotel.”

After ten years on the board, Earl Phillips sold his shares to Rockwell International, which was at that time involved in producing space shuttles and B-1 bombers. Earl Phillips concentrated on the furniture business. Today the Hatteras shipyard is owned by the Brunswick Corporation.

The Right Job

The Ambassador gained his education in the private school of Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut and at the University of North Carolina. He was strong in the arts and studied history and political science at the university. “Therefore I'm very well suited to what I do now,” he said.

Even without a business education Dave made important contributions in expanding his dad's furniture business. According to him, he never dreamt of any other profession. “I never looked at it that way. I think I was grateful to get a job after university. I loved being in the industry I was in from the very beginning.”

He considers diversifying the finance sector one of his biggest accomplishments in the company. “We started financing personal agencies, which gave them an opportunity to hire temporary personnel.”

Call from the President

Following his brother Earl Phillip, Jr.'s example, Dave Phillips went into politics. At different times he has donated 4 million EEKs [$348,000] to Bush's campaign. U.S. Ambassadors are not only the representatives of the Department of State but also of the White House and they are appointed personally by the President. When President Bush called and offered the position of ambassador, Phillips was camping in North Carolina. “I was ready to accept right away,” he told Eesti Päevaleht.

According to Phillips, the preparation period for an ambassador is very intense. First of all, the capability of the U.S. government is explained, followed by the history and current situation of the country to which he or she has been appointed . After months of intense preparation the appointee is finally ready to be presented to the U.S. Senate for confirmation. Senators have a right to question the appointee to find out whether they are prepared or not. It takes only one senator to stop the appointee from becoming a U.S. Ambassador.

Dave and his wife Kay started making preparations for moving to Estonia in December last year and arrived at the end of April. The meantime was passed by getting the house in order and packing. Dave and Kay live on a farm, and in addition to having horses, cows and goats, they also have much more exotic animals. “Kay loves animals,” says the Ambassador. “She has her zebras, her camels, buffalo, and bears that she has raised and who live behind the house. She feeds them every day and they all have names.” Luckily they have a good neighbor who takes care of the animals now, but Mrs. Phillips calls her often to see whether everything is alright. She still managed to take three of her friends with her: a dog, a cat, and a ferret.

Dave has not been home for four month but he's not homesick yet. “We've been settled in very well and happily but I'm just curious of what's going on down there. Luckily my family has been visiting me here.” Phillips' youngest child, Lucy, was in Estonia earlier, before our meeting with an ambassador.

Dave and Kay Phillips have four grown daughters, all of whom live on their own. “They all have different personalities,” says the Ambassador, and he is evidently proud of his daughters. The oldest daughter, Lil, started her career at the Hollywood company 20th Century Fox. After that she worked as a broker on Wall Street and recently got her master's degree in nutrition at Columbia University and is hoping to start her own business.

Kate is in the interior design business. She started in Sotheby's, New York City, and then worked for a prominent designer in San Francisco. She got her master's degree in London and now she works at the company of Henrietta Spencer-Churchill. The third daughter, Bo, works for the U.S. government. She worked for a North Carolina senator, for George Bush's campaign, and in the White House, and she now she lives in Washington, D.C. The youngest daughter, Lucy, is an artist. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art and completed an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She spent this summer studying in Lucca, Italy. All the Ambassador's daughters have already visited him in Estonia.

Pirita Residents

The Ambassador's residence is located in Pirita; it has a nice view of the sea. “I love the sunsets even though some of them happen a little later than I am accustomed to,” says Dave Phillips. He is very pleased with his living conditions. The only hard part is the summer heat that penetrates through the glass façade, and there is nowhere to hide as the house doesn't have air conditioning. His colleagues have warned him, though, that after the long summer days come the long winter months where daylight lasts for only a couple of hours.

“No two days are alike,” says the Ambassador of his job . A day starts with an overview of Estonian media: “We deal with the topics that the State Department wants us to deal with.” Exchanging information takes a bigger part of his day. As a businessman, his main goal is to promote Estonian-U.S. economic relations. He has already managed to find some contacts among Estonian businesses in the furniture and textile fields. He has also met with representative of Enterprise Estonia and has given them good contacts in Silicon Valley, which can be helpful in bringing investments to Estonia.

A New Embassy building

The U.S. State Department has approved the moving plans of the Tallinn Embassy and the Ambassador is looking for a new location. “I'm meeting with different people from government and business, trying to get ideas of what might be available, what things cost - land and buildings. Our employees like to work downtown where they can walk to work. Most of the Americans live downtown, so we are hoping to find something in the downtown area or close to downtown.” Phillips affirmed that he is excited about the U.S. government's decision to put them on the list. So far, from the security point of view, priorities have been in other parts of the world. “By the time they start moving I'll be long gone, but hopefully they'll call me back for the opening.”

Owner of a Golf Club

The Ambassador's favorite hobby is golf. Phillips has a partnership in one of the United States' most prestigious golf clubs, Pebble Beach in California. This golf center with great scenery changed ownership several times in the 1990s; it belonged to some Japanese before American investors bought it back. The investors, consisting of golf player Arnold Palmer, baseball promoter Peter Ueberoth, actor and director Clint Eastwood, and the former head of United Airlines Dick Ferris, paid $820 million for the resort. The greatest part of the money was raised by selling shares, worth $2-10 million, to friends and acquaintances. The names of those 132 people have not been published. “We bought it back from the Japanese,” says Dave, indicating that he is part of that circle.

The Ambassador has his golf clubs with him in Estonia, but he has not made it to the golf course yet. “I was so pleased when MP Marko Mihkelson invited me to play golf.” The ambassador expressed hope that his schedule will allow him to accept the invitation.

As the catamaran Diana nears the shore, the ambassador thanks the crew and Navigaator for the beautiful trip and notes that he would like to have more days like today.