Philip Gibson

Aside from his wife and young daughter, the focus of Dr. Philip Gibson’s life is financial planning. An associate professor of finance, he heads the financial planning program at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and conducts award-winning research in areas such as mutual funds and retirement. Gibson also helps clients as an adviser at Charlotte, North Carolina-based Carroll Financial and advances the profession through his volunteer efforts as a member of the Association of African American Financial Advisors and as a director and vice president of international relations for the Academy of Financial Services.

A native of Jamaica, Gibson, 37,  moved to Houston as a youth and attended nearby Prairie View A&M, a historically black university, on a tennis scholarship. He got his Ph.D. in 2012 and he became a CFP in 2014. Success in growing the planning program at the largest Catholic university in Texas, where he engaged students by bringing them to financial planning conferences, led to his post at Winthrop. The future? “I want to help more students and do more research to help our profession go forward.”

– Evan Cooper