Mark Phillips

Mark Phillips is a finance and decentralized finance executive. He is a co-founder and partner at Steakhouse Financial and a co-founder of Grove Labs, where he leads product and strategy for Grove Protocol. Phillips previously worked at Deloitte Consulting and Thermo Fisher Scientific and led MakerDAO’s Strategic Finance Core Unit. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]}

Education

Phillips earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Management from Northeastern University. ^[1] A 2024 Steakhouse Financial application states that he also completed all three levels of the CFA examination. ^[2]

Career

Deloitte Consulting and Thermo Fisher Scientific

Before entering decentralized finance, Phillips worked in finance, consulting and operations. He served as a senior consultant at Deloitte Consulting and subsequently held finance manager and senior finance manager positions at Thermo Fisher Scientific. ^{[1] [2]}

His earlier experience included finance and analyst roles at Bentley Motors, John Hancock Life Insurance Company and Pinnacle Health Management. ^[1]

MakerDAO

Phillips began contributing to decentralized autonomous organizations in early 2021, focusing on financial reporting and analysis. ^[2] MakerDAO governance later approved him as facilitator of its Strategic Finance Core Unit. ^[3]

The unit was responsible for producing financial reporting and analysis to help the DAO assess the protocol’s financial health, make strategic decisions and allocate capital. Phillips led this work before co-founding Steakhouse Financial. ^{[3] [4]}

Steakhouse Financial

Phillips co-founded Steakhouse Financial with Sébastien Derivaux and Adrian Cachinero Vasiljevic. He serves as a co-founder and partner, with work spanning financial strategy, treasury management, real-world assets and financial structuring for decentralized organizations. ^{[2] [4]}

Grove Labs

Grove’s June 2025 launch announcement identified Phillips, Kevin Chan and Sam Paderewski as the co-founders of Grove Labs. ^[6] Grove’s official team page lists Phillips as “Co-founder, Product & Strategy.” ^[5]

Phillips has also authored Grove publications related to product strategy and token-market design. In September 2025, he published “Token Launches in the Modern Era,” outlining his views on public token distribution, valuation and long-term alignment between protocols and their communities. ^[7]