Ted Phillips, CEO and president of the NFL's Chicago Bears, announced on Friday that he will retire after the 2022 season.

"I have been truly blessed with the honor of working for the Chicago Bears for 40 seasons and look forward to leading the team through the 2022 season," Phillips said in a statement. "I appreciate the support of the McCaskey family and to be involved in overseeing this amazing growth of the Chicago Bears through the years, is a dream come true."

Phillips was named the Bears' CEO and president on February 10, 1999. He was the fourth president in the team's 102-year history and the first to hold that position without being a member of the owner Halas-McCaskey family.

"Every day has been a true pleasure and being surrounded by so many talented and wonderful people has made my job richly rewarding on many levels. I will always bleed blue and orange and forever be proud to be a part of the Chicago Bears family," Phillips added.

The Bears reached the postseason six times, including making Super Bowl XLI in 2007, since Phillips took over as the team president. He also played a key role in the team's negotiations over moving to Arlington Heights, Illinois. The Bears signed to buy the former Arlington Racetrack site for $197.2 million in 2021.

"Our focus for long-term development is exclusively on that property," Phillips said as he anticipated closing on the land by early 2023.

"It's difficult to put into words how much Ted has meant to the Bears and our family. The faith that Virginia and Ed McCaskey placed in him by naming him President and CEO of the Bears has been rewarded many times over," Bears chairman George H. McCaskey said in the statement.

"He started out with us as a financial expert," Bears owner Virginia Halas McCaskey said. "Anything that he was ever asked to take care of, he came through and did it very well. We've been very blessed to have him."

The team will be looking for Phillips' successor in the coming months.