Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994                   TAG: 9406290118
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FORMER TELLER MAKES IT TO THE TOP

Ben Jenkins, president of the Virginia bank, said she is the highest-ranking woman executive in the Virginia-Maryland-Washington bank and one of only two or three executive vice presidents. No other woman in First Union Corp.'s multi-state region outranks her, he said, although several in other states are her equals.

A banner reading "Congratulations Flo, Great Job," a gift from First Union employees at Tyson's Corner in northern Virginia, was strung across her office Tuesday. On her desk were a dozen roses from her husband, Larry.

Phillips spent nine years teaching before taking a job as a teller with First Union. She worked her way up the ranks in a series of jobs including teller supervisor, branch manager and regional consumer banking executive.

She was offered the job of personnel director for the company in Charlotte in 1990 just as her husband retired as planning director for the highway safety program of the North Carolina Department of Transportation. He encouraged her to accept the promotion.

He was ready to move with her again in 1993, when Jenkins came to Roanoke to head First Union's new Virginia bank and asked Phillips to become its consumer banking executive. ``I think he knew he'd struck a nerve'' in suggesting a return to consumer banking, she said.

She supervises marketing, branch operations, consumer credit, mortgage lending and customer service functions in the three entities that make up the Roanoke-based bank. Consumer banking managers in all regions report to her.

She is the mother of two grown sons: Steve, who is assistant sports editor of the Salisbury (N.C.) Post; and Mitch, who sells golf clubs in Charlotte.

She is a graduate of Western Carolina University, the Carolina School of Banking at Chapel Hill and Louisiana State University's graduate school of banking.

``Flo Phillips has done it all,'' Jenkins said. ``She has moved up the ranks, performing every job along the way with exceptional skill. She is extremely sensitive to our customers' needs and is totally committed to providing first-rate customer service.

``She is absolutely the best consumer banking executive in our corporation today. Most importantly, Flo brings out the best in all of us at First Union.''