Philip Noel Diehl (born June 11, 1951) 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.
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Diehl was born in Dallas, Texas to Will A Diehl, a decorated World War II pilot who flew The Hump, 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.
When Diehl returned to Austin from Stanford, he worked for Bullock at the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts 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.[1] 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.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4]
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,[5][6] eliminated nine of ten political patronage positions,[6] and resolved its long-standing financial management weaknesses.[7][8] The Mint also reformed its troubled commemorative coin program[6] and built one of the most successful e-Business sites on the web.[6][9]
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.[6]
During his term as director, the Mint increased its profitability from $727 million to $2.6 billion.[6][7]
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.[6] While he was director, the Mint also had a highly successful launch of the Sacagawea dollar, though the effort fizzled later.[10][11] 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.[7]
The transformation of the Mint has been recognized with numerous awards[12][13][14][15] and extensive media coverage.[6][8][16][17][18][19][20][21]
Upon leaving the Mint, Diehl was named President of Zale.com, the online business platform of the Dallas-based jewelry retailer.[22] 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.[23] 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.[24] He continues to accept limited consulting and speaking engagements.
Diehl has been recognized by Advertising Age as among the Top 100 in marketing today[25] and received the American Society for Public Administration Government Executive Leadership Award,[26] the Faith and Politics Institute's[27] 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.[28]
His work at the Mint has been featured in the New York Times,[21][29]The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner,[30]The Art and Science of Leadership (5th Edition) by Afsaneh Nahavandi, and at the National Press Club luncheon series.[31] 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.[32]
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by David J. Ryder |
Director of the United States Mint June 1994 – March 2000 |
Succeeded by Jay W. Johnson |
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