Corey Phillips (’14)

Corey Phillips’ life has always been driven by defying systematical and generational barriers that greeted him at birth. Born to a teen single mother and raised by his grandparents, Corey was educated in the New York City public school system. After graduating from the University of South Carolina, he went to work for Cummins Inc. and found himself in Memphis working as a Financial Analyst, Accountant, and Purchasing Analyst.

He chose to pursue his MBA at Christian Brothers University “because of its established alumni network and the personal care the school takes to ensure you are getting the tools necessary to advance in your career.” And after he graduated in 2014, his career did indeed advance — he became a multidimensional professional with expanded experience in human resources and diversity recruitment and sourcing at both Cummins and Eli Lily as he relocated to Indianapolis. Given his relatively rocky start, Corey enjoys giving adversity a black eye at every opportunity.

Corey is currently a Director of Diversity Recruitment & Talent Acquisition at the biopharmaceutical company AbbVie, and he is also the co-founder and CEO of Dream Launch, a minority professional development company. Corey is passionate about educating and encouraging young professionals and collegiate students to exceed life obstacles by reaching their professional or entrepreneurial dreams. He has directed his commitment to diversity and inclusion to assist individuals of multiple professional and ethnic/racial backgrounds find their places in the corporate world and beyond. The motto of his company is “We Make Minority Leaders,” and it has a distinctly Lasallian mission to break down traditional corporate barriers including the exclusion of minorities, the stereotyping and preconceptions of roles and abilities of the undervalued and the overlooked.