In 2009, Harvard Business Review named its Top 100 Best Performing CEOs in the world. Coming in at number 26 on that list was Paul Chisholm '66. Indeed, in the past twenty years, you have become a force to watch in the corporate world. You got there because you took risks that paid off, ventured into unknown territory, made wise decisions, and in the words of colleagues, built “something out of absolutely nothing.” Through it all, you’ve remained a steadfast alumnus, a devout Catholic, a loving husband and father and a well-spoken man of your convictions.
The Paul Chisholm we have come to know began at Sacred Heart Grammar School in Roslindale. In your years at CM, you helped your family by working after school, although you enjoyed intramural sports here as well. You earned a B.A. from Boston College in 1971 and later an MBA from Babson in 1982. But in those years your interests turned to communications. After stints at AT&T, Shawmut Bank and New England Telephone, in 1988 you were named and served as vice president and general manager of Teleport Communications Boston.
In 1992, you saw an opportunity others might have looked past and you seized it, joining City of London TeleCommunications (COLT) as its managing director. In your years there as director, then as president and CEO through 2001, you oversaw the transition of COLT into a private institution and led its expansion as a publicly traded company into one of Fidelity’s top-performing investments, three times being named the top-performing stock on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. With as many as 5,000 employees and over $1 billion in revenue, you made COLT a standard-bearer in the communications services industry at the turn of the millennium.
Having accomplished much with COLT, you felt called to new challenges but also to your roots and returned stateside in 2001, where your children were in school and where your community allegiances were strong. Not wanting to jump right into another telecom company, you waited for the right opportunity, and MindShift Technologies provided it. As chairman and CEO since 2003, you have again turned something you’ve touched into gold. In the words of your CFO Larry Ingeneri, “It’s another success story. It’s fair to say Paul has not necessarily saved the company, but turned it into something special.”
“MindSHIFT was clearly a challenge for Paul,” board member Jon Siegel says. “But here’s a guy who’s got openness and honesty without any ego involved. Paul provided the vision, stability and ultimately the expertise to take this from a small conceptual company into one of more than $90 million in [business].”
You and your wife Margie have also managed to raise three children—Jamie, Robby and Brendan, and are proud grandparents of Phoebe, Allie and Jude. You have been a leader on the board of Cathedral High School and volunteered for St. Raphael’s Grammar School in Medford, serving as its development director in your spare time.
In recognition of his lifetime pursuit of excellence, and in recognition of his singular and passionate devotion to the field of technology and communications, we recognize Paul Chisholm '66 with the Vince in Bono Malum Award for Professional Achievement.
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