ENTREPRENEUR
DEAL MAKER
Paul sparkes
Paul is a builder. He likes to build and help create dynamic companies. For this reason, he surrounds himself with like-minded partners with proven results and leadership in finance, media, and technology.
Paul is also a believer in giving back. In 2008, he co-founded the Smiling Land Foundation, which has donated more than $1.6 million to charities in his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador and has since established a scholarship fund.
Paul is the President of Otterbury Holdings.
Paul’s diverse background started in politics serving his country by effecting change as a Senior political staffer as Director of Operations to the Office of Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Special Assistant for Atlantic Canada. He was also a senior aide to Newfoundland and Labrador Premiers Clyde Wells and Brian Tobin. Paul brings extensive public company management leadership and a record of success to several public and private boards he sits on.
Known for his ability to rapidly start and grow value, Paul co-founded a publicly traded specialty finance company with an idea and a vision which he helped build to a market cap of $200M within a very short period of time. Paul spent a decade as a leader in the broadcast and new media industry as a member of the senior leadership team at CTVglobemedia (now Bell Media), Canada’s largest media company.
While at CTV Paul led the Save Local TV PR campaign which helped achieve the necessary regulatory changes required in the broadcasting industry in a time of financial uncertainty. Paul is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth golden jubilee medal and was a torchbearer for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
He was responsible for corporate matters including strategy, regulatory, public and government affairs, communications, corporate social responsibility as well as all sponsorship for CTVglobemedia Inc., and its divisions including 27 conventional TV stations, 20 specialty and TV channels, 34 radio stations, The Globe and Mail, and Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium. Paul was voted one of Canada's top 100 lobbyists.
