Philip Li

Board member since: 2025

Board Position: At-Large Director

Philip Li is the President & CEO of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation which invests in leadership to create a more equitable, livable, and vibrant New York City.

Phil’s background spans both the nonprofit and private sectors. Previously, Phil was the Chief Operating Officer at The Century Foundation, a 100-year-old public policy think tank, and at Brooklyn Org, which he helped convert from a corporate entity to a community foundation. While at Changing Our World, a consultancy where he led strategic planning and fundraising engagements, he primarily worked with a global disabilities NGO to refine its U.S. fundraising strategy to diversify its revenue streams. Phil’s transformative experience in the Leadership New York program prompted him to jump from Wall Street to the nonprofit sector, and to lead the organization that ran the program, Coro New York Leadership Center. The first half of his career began at Merrill Lynch International, followed by a dozen years at two global banks, HSBC and Mizuho, before finishing at Moody’s Investors Service rating high yield bonds of food companies.

Phil is a former Board chair of Philanthropy New York, the regional association of grantmakers in New York City, and a co-founder of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, which invites a reconsideration of grantmaking practices.

Phil has a BA in Biology and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA in Finance and Strategic Planning from The Wharton School.