For decades, enantiomerically pure phenylglycinol has been exploited as a key building block for asymmetric reaction methodology. 1 Of the general asymmetric approaches to phenylglycinols reported to date, only moderate efficiencies have been obtained. Hence, the ability to electronically or sterically tune such motifs in a systematic manner, for instance in the design of novel catalysts, has been somewhat limited. One innovative approach toward solving this ...