Ted Phillips Ted Phillips is an American businessman and the President and CEO of the Chicago Bears and has been a part of the organization since 1984 . He is currently only the fourth president of the 90 year old organization , the others being Michael McCaskey , George Halas , Jr . , and " Papa Bear " George Halas . He is also the father of three sons , Matthew , Max , and Frank . Phillips was born in Oneida , New York and was raised in Nashua , New Hampshire . He graduated from The University of Notre Dame with an undergraduate degree in Business and Accounting . With this degree he worked for the accounting and consulting firm Ernst and Whinney ( now known as Ernst & Young ) . He worked as an auditor and tax accountant with them from 1979 - 1983 before joining the Bears . Phillips is currently one of only two individuals in the NFL to serve on both the NFL Working Club Executive committee and the NFL Senior Club Executive committee , whose mission is to analyze both the financial and football operations aspects of the Collective Bargaining Agreement . The NFL salary cap system is widely regarded as the best overall financial system in professional sports . The Chicago Bears . Phillips began his career with the organization on September 28 , 1983 as the teams Controller . After about four years he was promoted to the Director of Finance . Here he was responsible for the club ' s business operations and the negotiating and signing of all player contracts . While working with the Chicago Bears he earned his masters degree in Marketing and Management from the Kellog Graduate School at Northwestern University in 1989 . In 1993 he became the Vice President of Operations and served there for six years . President & CEO . The organization recognized Phillips work and effort and placed him in position to improve the club . Phillips was named the Chief Executive Officer and President of the Chicago Bears on February 10 , 1999 , making him only the fourth president in team history . He made many changes to the organization in order to legitimize the franchise once more . In the offseason of 2001 , Phillips hired Jerry Angelo as the General Manager of the team , and later extended his contract in 2003 and 2006 to create stability in the front office . He also brought the Bears summer training camp back to Illinois in 2002 . Fans have appreciated this by attending camp in groups of over 10 , 000 at the campus of Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais , Illinois . With the growing value of the team ticket prices kept rising , but in 2009 Phillips decided to freeze ticket prices in lieu of the country ' s economic situation . Despite this , Phillips kept the Bears in the Top 10 Most Valuable NFL teams and raised the teams value to $ 1 . 09 Billion in 2011 . He also voted against the new NFL rule to move up kickoffs to the 35 yard line , considering Special Teams have been a strong point for the Bears , but the rule passed . Controversy . There has however been some controversy with his authority by other members in the club . Phillips refused to admit that Soldier Field needed to replace its grass with field turf , despite having many players on his team say that it should be replaced and that it was dangerous to player safety . During the winter the grass becomes very torn up from being used 10 + weeks , causing a lot of slipping and sometimes even injuries . Phillips actually flipped the situation to state that this gives the Bears a home field advantage , even though the Bears don ' t really practice at Soldier field . There was also some controversy when the organization decided to not re - sign veteran Center Olin Kreutz . Kreutz was a 6 time Pro Bowl candidate over his 12 year career with the Bears . Kreutz wanted a $ 4 million contract to be compensated for his tenure , but Phillips and his crew only offered $ 3 . 5 million and later signed another Center , Chris Spencer .