Andrew Phillips, chief financial officer of Civic San Diego, has been named interim president of the city agency that oversees downtown and neighborhood revitalization.<br /><br />Phillips, 38, previously worked for the development company Fairfield Residential as a financial reporting analyst and Symitar Systems software. He will replace Jeff Graham, who resigned to take a job with the Jones Lang LaSalle real estate company to oversee public-private partnerships in the West.<br /><br />CivicSD Chairwoman Cynthia Morgan said a job description will be completed next week and advertisements placed nationally to seek a permanent president within three to six months. Her board will recommend a candidate to Mayor-elect Kevin Faulconer, with the City Council having the final say.<br /><br />"I think we just want the best candidate," Morgan said. "If we can find someone who had similar experiences, even in another city, great, because we feel those experiences would allow the candidate to hit the ground running."<br /><br />Qualities sought in a new president, she said, include management expertise, communications skills, experience in working with the private sector on joint ventures with governmental entities and a land-use background.<br /><br />Graham, who worked at CivicSD and its predecessor, the Centre City Development Corp. for nearly seven years, oversaw a staff of 32 and an administrative budget of $6 million -- both much reduced when the state dissolved redevelopment agencies in a budget move in 2011.<br /><br />CivicSD's dual functions are to wind down leftover redevelopment projects and to promote economic development citywide. It uses grants, tax credits and other financial resources to help jump start development projects and infrastructure improvements in needy neighborhoods.<br /><br />"We have a new mayor and will have a lot of stability and direction," Morgan said. "The mayor, I think, will find his feet and move us forward."<br /><br />Besides Graham's departure, CivicSD's nine-member board has two vacancies for Faulconer to fill. Urban designer Howard Blackson has left the board to join the city's Civic Innovation Lab, which will focus on small-scale neighborhood demonstration projects, and Susan Riggs is resigning as executive director of the San Diego Housing Federation to take a job in Sacramento with Gov. Jerry Brown's Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency.