About Paul
Paul Quinn has over 30 years’ experience as a writer, executive presentation coach, and corporate seminar leader across a wide range of industries. He is the author of The Big Ask, a forthcoming book about the power of asking as a vital skill at work, home, and in life at large.
Background
Actor. After earning a bachelor’s degree in Theatre Performance from Illinois State University, Paul studied improvisation under Don DePollo at Chicago’s Second City, appeared in television commercials for Ramada Inn, TimeLife Books, Shopko, and others; and co-founded The Idea Theatre, a Chicago-based touring troupe featured on the ABC television special “Just Say No!” with Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey.
Writer. Paul transitioned from actor to wordsmith writing more than 100 branding, educational, or training videos — many award-winning — on a wide range of topics. His clients included Encyclopedia Britannica, McDonald’s, Sears, Allstate Insurance, Kraft Foods, Hoffman La Roche, Abbott Laboratories, Holiday Inn, Howard Johnson, Junior Achievement, Modelo, Kitchen Aid, United Way of Lake County, Procore, Tenneco Packaging, Sterling Commerce, Uptime Institute, Evinrude & Johnson Outboard Motors, Click Software, Environmental Groups Services Ltd., and many others.
In partnership with World View Productions Ltd., Paul scripted over 20 health & safety videos and/or eLearning programs for PepsiCo and helped many company spokespersons prepare for on-camera appearances.
Corporate Trainer. Paul’s success in writing educational and training media led to his eight years as head of client coaching (training) programs for Chicago-based Unipro Marketing, then the second-largest tradeshow marketing and events company in North America. At Unipro he customized and co-led seminars in the U.S. and abroad on customer engagement for clients including IBM, Xerox, FedEx, U.S. Postal Service, Bosch Automotive, Panasonic, LifeFitness, Maritz, LaSalle Bank, Tivoli Systems, Quintiles, Lucent Technologies, Sabreliner, Cheyenne Software, Xilinx, and Amdocs.
Writer & Presentation Coach. For microfinance leader Opportunity International, Paul served as head writer for nine of the organization’s national conferences and provided presentation coaching many of the speakers, panelists, and breakout session leaders including ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers visiting the U.S. for the first time.
He has written keynote speeches for C-level executives at Waste Management, Inc., Weatherford International, Abbott Laboratories, and Opportunity International and led workshops in presentation skills for McDonald’s Corporation, PepsiCo, The Signature Group, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, the Young Lawyers Section of the Chicago Bar Association, Northeastern Illinois University, and Minority Economic Resource Council, among others.
In 2017 and 2018, Paul partnered with Brian Vandenbroucke of Articulate Creative Services, Inc. and coached multiple presenters for Weatherford International’s annual investor relations meetings. For Weatherford’s 2019 and 2020 sales meetings, Paul and Brian coached over 160 presenters in more than 70 unique presentations.
Other Training. In addition to holding a bachelor’s degree, Paul is a 1986 graduate of a 300-hour Facilitator Training Program at Chicago’s Oasis Center for Human Potential, likened at the time to the Esalen Institute for the breadth and depth of its personal growth curriculum. He received practitioner certification in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) from the NLP Institute of Chicago.