Philip N. Diehl
Encyclopedia
Philip Noel Diehl is CEO of United States Gold Exchange, an Austin, Texas-based start up launching an online trading platform for gold bullion coins and United States commemorative coins. His career has centered on the intersection of business, government and politics. Diehl has held senior executive positions in public relations, government affairs, and telecommunications as well as in federal and state government.
In 1994, he was nominated to be Director of the United States Mint
by President Bill Clinton
and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate
. He served in that position until March 2000. Diehl also held senior positions with Senator and then United States Secretary of the Treasury
Lloyd Bentsen
including chief of staff of the United States Department of the Treasury
, majority staff director of the Senate Finance Committee, and legislative director to Senator Bentsen. He is married to the former Jacquita Pearson. They have two sons: Soren Michael Diehl and Alex Douglas Diehl.
, and the former Wandah Marguerite Findley. He is the second of three sons, brothers Paul Byron Diehl of Iowa City, Iowa and the Rev. Mark Evan Diehl of Charlotte, North Carolina.
He graduated from Lubbock High School in Lubbock, Texas
and earned a B.A. degree from Austin College
working pipeline construction during summers to pay tuition. At Austin College, he was a member of the fraternity Sigma Tau Epsilon and was elected president of the fraternity. He earned an M.A. degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin
and received a fellowship to do post-graduate work in political science at Stanford University
.
Diehl's involvement in Democratic Party
affairs began at Austin College, working in the reelection campaign of United States Senator Ralph Yarborough
. He also organized students and the neighboring African American community in support of local reform candidates. After meeting resistance from local election officials, he requested the assistance of the Texas Secretary of State Bob Bullock
. When Diehl graduated from Austin College, he moved to Austin where he developed and executed an earned media and advertising program in Bullock's first statewide campaign in 1974, married Jacquita in June 1974 and completed his M.A. in May 1976.
office. Later he held positions as assistant to Commissioner Dennis L. Thomas and Director of Telephone Regulation at the Public Utility Commission of Texas
(PUC).
In the wake of the Bell system divestiture
, he oversaw a dramatic change in the regulation of telecommunications utilities. He was the PUC's liaison to the Texas Legislature
during a rewrite of the state's telecommunications regulatory laws and championed the commission's opposition to AT&T's attempt to be deregulated by the legislature. The proposal was defeated and the legislature mandated a market dominance
case be held to determine whether AT&T
retained market power
. Diehl led the case against AT&T's deregulation which prevailed at the administrative trial level. The decision was unanimously confirmed by the commission and upheld on appeal in state district court.
Diehl was responsible for adoption of the state's first programs to make telephone service more affordable for low income households: Lifeline rates and Link Up Texas. He also spearheaded creation of Texas Relay Service, the state's first program to make telecom service available to the deaf and hard-of-hearing. In 1988, Diehl joined Dallas-based International Telecharge, Inc. as Vice President of Regulatory Affair. He was responsible for state regulatory and legislative affairs and was the company's expert witness in administrative law and appeals court proceedings.
In January 1991, Diehl was named legislative director to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen
. In September 1992, the Senator promoted him to majority staff director of the Senate Finance Committee. On the first day of the Clinton administration, he moved to the U.S. Treasury Department and was named Chief of Staff to Treasury Secretary Bentsen. In December 1993, President Clinton announced his intent to nominate Diehl as Director of the United States Mint
, and the U.S. Senate confirmed him unanimously in June 1994.
positions, and resolved its long-standing financial management weaknesses. The Mint also reformed its troubled commemorative coin
program and built one of the most successful e-Business sites on the web.
The Mint's customer service initiatives won the agency the highest customer satisfaction score on the University of Michigan School of Business American Customer Satisfaction Index
, equaling or exceeding the scores of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Hershey Foods among others.
During his term as director, the Mint increased its profitability from $727 million to $2.6 billion.
Diehl bypassed opposition at the top of the Treasury Department to work with Representative Michael Castle (R-Delaware) in enacting the 50 State Quarters
program and oversaw its successful launch. While he was director, the Mint also had a highly successful launch of the Sacagawea dollar
, though the effort fizzled later. In both cases, the Mint built an extensive network of partnerships with the private sector to ensure the coins' successful launch. These partnerships included Wal-Mart, General Mills, Hallmark, The Jim Henson Company, Reader's Digest, and the National Geographic Society among others.
The transformation of the Mint has been recognized with numerous awards and extensive media coverage.
Upon leaving the Mint, Diehl was named President of Zale.com, the online business platform of the Dallas-based jewelry retailer. In the wake of the dot-com bubble
, he returned to Washington, DC to join the international public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard
as president of the company's government relations subsidiary. He also established the company's B2G practice and opened its Middle East office in Cairo, Egypt. In 2007, he formed a consulting firm with clients in the Middle East and the U.S. In July 2010 he was named CEO of United States Gold Exchange. He continues to accept limited consulting and speaking engagements.
Government Executive Leadership Award, the Faith and Politics Institute's St. Joseph's Day Award for values-based leadership, and the Treasury Medal for outstanding public service awarded by Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers
. In 1998, Austin College named him a Distinguished Alumni.
His work at the Mint has been featured in the New York Times,The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner,The Art and Science of Leadership (5th Edition) by Afsaneh Nahavandi, and at the National Press Club luncheon series. It has also been used as a case study in several undergraduate and graduate school business courses. Diehl's leadership on customer service initiatives was recognized by Vice President Al Gore
when he appointed Diehl chairman of the government-wide Committee on Excellence in Customer Satisfaction.
In 1994, he was nominated to be Director of the United States Mint
United States Mint
The United States Mint primarily produces circulating coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce. The Mint was created by Congress with the Coinage Act of 1792, and placed within the Department of State...
by President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
. He served in that position until March 2000. Diehl also held senior positions with Senator and then United States Secretary of the Treasury
United States Secretary of the Treasury
The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...
Lloyd Bentsen
Lloyd Bentsen
Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr. was a four-term United States senator from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1955. In his later political life, he was Chairman of the Senate...
including chief of staff of the United States Department of the Treasury
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
, majority staff director of the Senate Finance Committee, and legislative director to Senator Bentsen. He is married to the former Jacquita Pearson. They have two sons: Soren Michael Diehl and Alex Douglas Diehl.
Early life
Diehl was born in Dallas, Texas to Will A Diehl, a decorated World War II pilot who flew The HumpThe Hump
The Hump was the name given by Allied pilots in the Second World War to the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains over which they flew military transport aircraft from India to China to resupply the Chinese war effort of Chiang Kai-shek and the units of the United States Army Air Forces based in...
, and the former Wandah Marguerite Findley. He is the second of three sons, brothers Paul Byron Diehl of Iowa City, Iowa and the Rev. Mark Evan Diehl of Charlotte, North Carolina.
He graduated from Lubbock High School in Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...
and earned a B.A. degree from Austin College
Austin College
Austin College is a private liberal arts college affiliated by covenant relationship with the Presbyterian Church and located in Sherman, Texas, about 60 miles North of Dallas....
working pipeline construction during summers to pay tuition. At Austin College, he was a member of the fraternity Sigma Tau Epsilon and was elected president of the fraternity. He earned an M.A. degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
and received a fellowship to do post-graduate work in political science at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
.
Diehl's involvement in Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
affairs began at Austin College, working in the reelection campaign of United States Senator Ralph Yarborough
Ralph Yarborough
Ralph Webster Yarborough was a Texas Democratic politician who served in the United States Senate and was a leader of the progressive or liberal wing of his party in his many races for statewide office...
. He also organized students and the neighboring African American community in support of local reform candidates. After meeting resistance from local election officials, he requested the assistance of the Texas Secretary of State Bob Bullock
Bob Bullock
Robert Douglas Bullock, known as Bob Bullock , was a Democratic politician from Texas, whose career spanned four decades. His service culminated in his term as Lieutenant Governor of Texas from January 15, 1991–January 19, 1999 during the terms of Governors Ann Richards and George W...
. When Diehl graduated from Austin College, he moved to Austin where he developed and executed an earned media and advertising program in Bullock's first statewide campaign in 1974, married Jacquita in June 1974 and completed his M.A. in May 1976.
Career in Austin and Washington, DC
When Diehl returned to Austin from Stanford, he worked for Bullock at the Texas Comptroller of Public AccountsTexas Comptroller of Public Accounts
The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts is an executive branch position created by the Texas Constitution. As with nearly every other executive branch head, the Comptroller is popularly elected every four years concurrently with the Governor and the other elected executive branch positions...
office. Later he held positions as assistant to Commissioner Dennis L. Thomas and Director of Telephone Regulation at the Public Utility Commission of Texas
Public Utility Commission of Texas
The ' is a state agency that regulates the state’s electric and telecommunication utilities, implements respective legislation, and offers customer assistance in resolving consumer complaints....
(PUC).
In the wake of the Bell system divestiture
Bell System divestiture
The Bell System divestiture, or the breakup of AT&T, was initiated by the filing in 1974 by the U.S. Department of Justice of an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T. The case, United States v...
, he oversaw a dramatic change in the regulation of telecommunications utilities. He was the PUC's liaison to the Texas Legislature
Texas Legislature
The Legislature of the state of Texas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The Legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin...
during a rewrite of the state's telecommunications regulatory laws and championed the commission's opposition to AT&T's attempt to be deregulated by the legislature. The proposal was defeated and the legislature mandated a market dominance
Dominance
Dominance may refer to:* Dominance , an aspect of virtual inheritance in the C++ programming language* Dominance , in economics, the degree of inequality in market share distribution...
case be held to determine whether AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
retained market power
Market power
In economics, market power is the ability of a firm to alter the market price of a good or service. In perfectly competitive markets, market participants have no market power. A firm with market power can raise prices without losing its customers to competitors...
. Diehl led the case against AT&T's deregulation which prevailed at the administrative trial level. The decision was unanimously confirmed by the commission and upheld on appeal in state district court.
Diehl was responsible for adoption of the state's first programs to make telephone service more affordable for low income households: Lifeline rates and Link Up Texas. He also spearheaded creation of Texas Relay Service, the state's first program to make telecom service available to the deaf and hard-of-hearing. In 1988, Diehl joined Dallas-based International Telecharge, Inc. as Vice President of Regulatory Affair. He was responsible for state regulatory and legislative affairs and was the company's expert witness in administrative law and appeals court proceedings.
In January 1991, Diehl was named legislative director to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen
Lloyd Bentsen
Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr. was a four-term United States senator from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1955. In his later political life, he was Chairman of the Senate...
. In September 1992, the Senator promoted him to majority staff director of the Senate Finance Committee. On the first day of the Clinton administration, he moved to the U.S. Treasury Department and was named Chief of Staff to Treasury Secretary Bentsen. In December 1993, President Clinton announced his intent to nominate Diehl as Director of the United States Mint
United States Mint
The United States Mint primarily produces circulating coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce. The Mint was created by Congress with the Coinage Act of 1792, and placed within the Department of State...
, and the U.S. Senate confirmed him unanimously in June 1994.
Director of the United States Mint and thereafter
Diehl executed a dramatic turnaround of the Mint. By the time he left the agency in March 2000, the Mint had convinced Congress to exempt it from all procurement regulations and annual appropriations, eliminated nine of ten political patronagePatronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
positions, and resolved its long-standing financial management weaknesses. The Mint also reformed its troubled commemorative coin
Commemorative coin
Commemorative coins are coins that were issued to commemorate some particular event or issue. Most world commemorative coins were issued from the 1960s onward, although there are numerous examples of commemorative coins of earlier date. Such coins have a distinct design with reference to the...
program and built one of the most successful e-Business sites on the web.
The Mint's customer service initiatives won the agency the highest customer satisfaction score on the University of Michigan School of Business American Customer Satisfaction Index
American Customer Satisfaction Index
The American Customer Satisfaction Index is an economic indicator that measures the satisfaction of consumers across the U.S. economy. It is produced by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, a private company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan....
, equaling or exceeding the scores of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Hershey Foods among others.
During his term as director, the Mint increased its profitability from $727 million to $2.6 billion.
Diehl bypassed opposition at the top of the Treasury Department to work with Representative Michael Castle (R-Delaware) in enacting the 50 State Quarters
50 State Quarters
The 50 State Quarters program is the release of a series of circulating commemorative coins by the United States Mint. Between 1999 and 2008, it featured each of the 50 U.S. states on unique designs for the reverse of the quarter....
program and oversaw its successful launch. While he was director, the Mint also had a highly successful launch of the Sacagawea dollar
Sacagawea dollar
The Sacagawea dollar is a United States dollar coin that has been minted every year since 2000. These coins have a copper core clad by manganese brass, giving them a distinctive golden color. The coin features an obverse by Glenna Goodacre. The reverse design has varied, from 2000 to 2008...
, though the effort fizzled later. In both cases, the Mint built an extensive network of partnerships with the private sector to ensure the coins' successful launch. These partnerships included Wal-Mart, General Mills, Hallmark, The Jim Henson Company, Reader's Digest, and the National Geographic Society among others.
The transformation of the Mint has been recognized with numerous awards and extensive media coverage.
Upon leaving the Mint, Diehl was named President of Zale.com, the online business platform of the Dallas-based jewelry retailer. In the wake of the dot-com bubble
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
, he returned to Washington, DC to join the international public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard
Fleishman-Hillard
Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, based in St. Louis, Missouri, is one of the world's largest public relations agencies, with a global network of offices as well as offices in 22 cities in the United States. It is a part of Omnicom Group Inc....
as president of the company's government relations subsidiary. He also established the company's B2G practice and opened its Middle East office in Cairo, Egypt. In 2007, he formed a consulting firm with clients in the Middle East and the U.S. In July 2010 he was named CEO of United States Gold Exchange. He continues to accept limited consulting and speaking engagements.
Awards and recognition
Diehl has been recognized by Advertising Age as among the Top 100 in marketing today and received the American Society for Public AdministrationAmerican Society for Public Administration
The American Society for Public Administration is a membership association in the United States sponsoring conferences and providing professional services primarily to those who study the implementation of government policy, public administration, and, to a lesser degree, programs of civil society...
Government Executive Leadership Award, the Faith and Politics Institute's St. Joseph's Day Award for values-based leadership, and the Treasury Medal for outstanding public service awarded by Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers
Lawrence Summers
Lawrence Henry Summers is an American economist. He served as the 71st United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He was Director of the White House United States National Economic Council for President Barack Obama until November 2010.Summers is the...
. In 1998, Austin College named him a Distinguished Alumni.
His work at the Mint has been featured in the New York Times,The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner,The Art and Science of Leadership (5th Edition) by Afsaneh Nahavandi, and at the National Press Club luncheon series. It has also been used as a case study in several undergraduate and graduate school business courses. Diehl's leadership on customer service initiatives was recognized by Vice President Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
when he appointed Diehl chairman of the government-wide Committee on Excellence in Customer Satisfaction.