Paul Handover

Paul Handover is a child of the post-war era in Great Britain having been born in London a few months before the end of WWII.  After a rather shaky attempt at being educated, including 2 years studying for a Diploma in Electrical Engineering, Paul’s first job was as a commercial apprentice at the British Aircraft Corporation. He then joined the sales desk of British Visqueen, a polythene film and products manufacturer located in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, and part of ICI Plastics Division.  In 1968, he travelled out to Sydney, Australia and became part of the sales team at ICIANZ’s Inorganic Chemicals Division.

Upon returning  to the UK, Paul signed up with IBM UK, Office Products division, as a field salesman and spent 8 very happy years with them.  But the lure of starting a business was too strong and he left IBM to start his own company, Dataview Ltd.  Dataview became the 8th Commodore PC dealer in the UK and later the 8th IBM PC dealer.  The company also became famous for producing and globally distributing a British-made word processing program: Wordcraft.

During this exciting period Paul became much more aware of the importance of marketing strategy and the raft of competencies that deliver entrepreneurial success.  After Dataview was sold, he used these experiences to act successfully as a sales and marketing consultant for small and large organisations.  Paul has also been a visiting teacher at both an English and French business school and continues to provide coaching and mentoring to entrepreneurs both sides of the ‘pond’  He lives in Merlin, Oregon, USA with his wife, Jean, also born a Londoner, where he attempts the life of a struggling writer!  Fuller bio on Linked-In.