About Paul

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 hundreds of branding, educational, and training materials—many award-winning—for clients including Encyclopedia Britannica, McDonald’s Corp., Sears, Allstate Insurance, Kraft Foods, Hoffman La Roche, Abbott Laboratories, Holiday Inn, Howard Johnson, Junior Achievement, Modelo, Kitchen Aid, Procore, Tenneco Packaging, Evinrude & Johnson Outboard Motors, 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 coached many company spokespersons for their on-camera appearances.

Trainer. Paul’s success in writing educational and training media led to his seven 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 customer engagement seminars in the U.S. and abroad 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.

Presentation Coach. Paul has 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, Rotary International, and Minority Economic Resource Council, among others. Additionally, he has written keynote speeches for C-level executives at Waste Management, Inc., Weatherford International, Abbott Laboratories, and Opportunity International.

Other Training. Paul holds a bachelor’s degree from Illinois State Univerrsity and is a graduate of a 200-hour Facilitator Training Program at the now-defunct Oasis Center (Chicago), 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.