Ben Camacho and Phil Canfield at Lyceum
“Optionality.” This term is one that Phil Canfield advises students to keep in mind when pursuing a career in business. Canfield recently spoke to the sophomore Business Honors students in their Lyceum class. Canfield, who spent 28 years at the Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR and is now managing his own firm called Ariet Capital, explains how important it is to have “multiple paths,” whether it be in an interview, an investment, or a career.
For Phil Canfield, business had always been a career path he was destined for, even before he attended the University of Texas and studied in the Business Honors Program. “I was just drawn to the idea of how you bring people together to try to accomplish something.”
After studying in the Business Honors Program at UT, Canfield pursued a career in private equity with the firm GTCR. Canfield also attained his MBA from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. According to Canfield, his undergraduate degree from the Business Honors Program and his MBA from Booth put him in a secure position and afforded him the “optionality” that he so values.