Partner
Phillip LaFargue joined Emergent Method as vice president in March 2014 after serving as senior vice president of marketing for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC), one of the nation’s leading economic development organizations, and before that, director of communications at Center for Planning Excellence. Phillip also worked as a senior design associate at Matter, a strategic design firm in Atlanta, where he helped the Marriott Corporation develop a new trip-planning experience and worked with the WK Kellogg Foundation to develop an alternative pathway to meaningful employment for out-of-school youth.
Phillip’s expertise lies in strategic planning and project management, multi- stakeholder outreach and decision-making processes, marketing, graphic design, branding, design thinking, strategic planning and qualitative research. He has a track record of bringing skilled executive leadership, dynamic communications, and structured thought processes to help companies and organizations of various sizes develop products, services, and plans for maximum impact.
Phillip is an accomplished consulting professional with expertise in end-user product and service design, and experiences that include working with The Water Institute of the Gulf, a Baton Rouge-based nonprofit with global reach, to lead communications; the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, where he planned and executed “community conversation” outreach events in communities across the coast; Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, where he ran internal communications strategy for the health system as it transitioned its inpatient Electronic Medical Record System; and with businesses and organizations large and small, such as Carbo Landscape Architecture, Suzanne Turner Associates, The Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, MAPP Construction, and Citizens Bank & Trust, to lead their strategic planning efforts–in many cases including succession planning. Phillip also led employer outreach efforts on behalf of Louisiana Economic Development in support of its Louisiana Job Connection program and has helped re-imagine service delivery models rooted through user-centered design processes for organizations like the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Phillip holds a Master of Design in Human-Centered Communication Design from the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Louisiana State University.
On top of his client involvement, Phillip sits on the boards of Leadership Baton Rouge Alumni and the Baton Rouge Gallery, where he serves as treasurer. He also recently completed terms as a board member for the Big River Economic and Agricultural Development Alliance (BREADA) and the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center for the Arts. In addition, Phillip was named to the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report’s 2012 “Forty Under 40” class of rising stars in the Baton Rouge area and he is co-founder of the GRAMMY-winning Louisiana-based record label, Valcour Records.
