Phillip Livingston
Biography
Phil Livingston serves as Vice Chairman of Approva Corporation. Phil also serves on a number of boards. He is a director and audit committee chair of Cott Corporation (NYSE:COT). Cott is the leading manufacturer of private label carbonated soft drinks. He is also a director of MSC.Software (MNSC). MSC is a leader in virtual product development applications.
From 2003 to 2005 he was Chief Financial Officer and a member of the board of directors of World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE:WWE). WWE is an integrated media and entertainment company, producing the top-rated cable television shows Raw and SmackDown! WWE is listed on the NYSE and had revenue of $375M.
Prior to joining WWE, Livingston was president and CEO of Financial Executives International (FEI) from 1999 to 2003. FEI is the preeminent association for senior financial executives acting as an advocate to regulators and legislators. In his role with FEI he had significant participation in formulation and passage of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 giving formal testimony to the House Financial Services Committee and directly authoring sections 406 and 407 regarding ethical codes of conduct for corporate financial officers and audit committee financial experts. He also attended the White House bill signing ceremony.
He has appeared on Moneyline with Lou Dobbs, CNBC’s Wake Up Call and Power Lunch as well as Nightly Business Report from PBS. Livingston is widely published including “Test your Financial Literacy” – Directors & Boards; “Financial Management after Enron”– Bank Accounting & Finance; The Value of Stock Options”, “American Governance Laws Need Fixing” – both pieces for the Op Ed page of the Financial Times.
Prior to joining FEI, Livingston served as Senior Vice President and CFO of Catalina Marketing Corporation (NYSE:POS), a $400 million supplier of electronic marketing services for the consumer packaged goods industry.
Before joining Catalina, Livingston was CFO of Celestial Seasonings, where he successfully managed the company’s initial public offering and debt refinancing in 1993. His early career included positions in financial management and auditing with Genentech, Inc. and Ernst & Young, where he earned his CPA. He received an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley and both a B.S. and a B.A. from the University of Maryland.
Prior to entering the business world, Livingston played offensive tackle as a member of the 1981 Super Bowl Champion Oakland Raiders. He is a past member of both advisory councils to the U.S. and International Financial Accounting Standards Boards (IASB and FASB). He is a member of The Economic Club of New York. Phil and his wife Karen have three children, Sarah (13), Scott (10) and Cindy (7). Karen and Phil enjoy golf and Phil is an avid photographer.