Paul is a serial social venture entrepreneur. Most recently, he is the co-founder and Vice Chairman of Mercy BioAnalytics. He began his career in 1986 as an investment banker with Citibank and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. He then served as the President of First Mercury Financial Corporation, a publicly traded insurance company. He also co-founded and managed a private investment partnership – PWB Value Partners, L.P. – which began in 1995 with three investors and $3.2 million under management. Over 14 years, the business grew to more than 80 investors and approximately $2.0 billion, consistently outperforming the S&P 500 Index, net of all fees and expenses.
Paul was born and raised in Southfield, Michigan just outside of Detroit. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with High Distinction with a BBA from the University of Michigan and earned an MBA at Harvard Business School.
Paul’s primary philanthropic focus is youth life transformation for those who need it the most and are least able to help themselves. Paul and Amy, his wife of 32+ years, have immersed themselves in the following programs:
- Blavin Scholars – Programs at the University of Michigan and Northern Arizona University that provide holistic, wrap-around support to youth who have experienced foster care to achieve their dreams of a post-secondary education and a better life. The Blavin Scholars Programs currently support 75 amazingly inspiring young people and have graduated over 150 scholars thus far with a graduation rate of approximately 95%.
- Transformational Prison Project- An MA-based program providing safe spaces where those who have been harmed and those who have done the harming can come together and engage in dialogue—to build understanding and empathy toward those who have been victims of violent crime. TPP is committed to understanding individual harms and the systemic harms that affect communities, more specifically communities of color.
- Freehab – A LA-based free, residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation center with up to 100, 18–25-year-old women in residence. In the latter parts of their residency, each client is provided high-quality vocational training to enable them to gain employment and establish successful careers.
- Thrive Scholars – An elite post-secondary education opportunity for the most ambitious students (poor and almost all of color) in America’s lowest-performing public schools.
- Anti-Recidivism Coalition – A wraparound support and career services organization for men and women recently released from incarceration, and a national leader in criminal justice reform advocacy.
- Mully Children’s Family – A self-sustainable non-profit, empowering life transformation opportunities for abandoned children/orphans in Africa.
In 2015, Paul began an effort to harness the power of exceptional art to inspire hope, compel action, and ignite lasting impact. He is the Executive Producer of The Hunting Ground, an exposé on the epidemic of sexual assaults on college campuses, and Lady Gaga’s “Til It Happens to You” a Grammy, Emmy, and Oscar-nominated original song written by Lady Gaga and Diane Warren who’s accompanying music video has more than 44 million views. Additionally, Paul is an Executive Producer of the heartwarming, inspirational animal rescue documentary Harry & Snowman and Mully, the inspiring documentary of Dr. Charles Mully “Father of the World’s Largest Family” with over 13,000 rescued children. Paul is also the founding financier of One Community, a film and television co-financing company that harnesses the power of storytelling to inspire and encourage positive change in the world.