About
Paul Rothwell has spent 35 years in boardrooms. This is what he learned.
An engineer by training, Paul has worked at board level for over 35 years — as director, MD, CEO, chair, NED, and investor across fifteen businesses in manufacturing, food, retail, and engineering. The largest he ran had nearly 800 employees. The smallest he has chaired had four.
After his first retirement from full-time operating roles in 2014, he acquired a manufacturing and retail business and ran it as Group CEO through seven years of restructuring and modernisation before completing a transition to a new MD and exiting in 2023.
He currently chairs four Northern Ireland businesses and has mentored more than thirty owners and CEOs through extended engagements. He has presented for Invest NI’s Leaders Programme and spoken at multiple IoD Directors Masterclass events.
"Having worked with Paul, I can honestly say this book is exactly him. Honest, direct, hard-hitting, thought provoking and hugely practical. He has a way of cutting through the bs and getting to the conversations boards actually need to have. As I was reading it, I could genuinely hear him saying the words. There’s no fluff, no theory for the sake of it, just real insight, challenge and experience from years spent helping businesses and boards become better."
- Cathy Booth, Consultant – Strategy, Change and Board Development
"I really enjoyed reading this! You can tell that this book comes from experience and as I have seen you deliver a lot of the content in person it certainly didn’t lose impact when written down. There are so many gems of wisdom, and I love that you have added the questions at the end of the chapters and the templates that will make it very practical for people to use. I will certainly be directing people to it in the future!"
- Programme Manager for Owner/CEO Leadership programme