Years as an ASSP member – 37
Years in the safety industry – 42
Meet John Pauls, CSP, ARM, Home Office Manager-Loss Control at Penn National Insurance. John grew up in a ‘small town outside of Pittsburgh’. He says “half of it is torn down, the other half should be”. He later attended the University of Dayton, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.
3 key responsibilities of your job –
- Overseeing Loss Control consulting services provided to our insured commercial policyholders.
- Managing Loss Control Department staff, goals/direction, and budgets.
- Interacting with Home Office Executive staff, Branch Management staff, and Branch employees on the goals of reducing insured policyholder losses and achieving corporate goals.
What or Who inspires you – My first boss who I consider as an ideal manager. He helped me in my career growth and helped to temper my early to mid twenties tendencies, especially living in Southern California at the time.
Our current CEO who focuses on corporate goals while treating employees with respect and compassion.
Industry leaders, such as Jeff Bezos, who drive innovation and are able to grow an idea into an integral part of our society today.
Others who strive to put into the effort to expand their knowledge/capabilities and are partners in achieving business and personal goals.
Most meaningful professional achievement – I took over providing risk management services to a large corporate insured customer that had 21 automotive dealership locations in the DC and Baltimore areas. It was our largest insured policyholder. When I was asked to take over the service, I had to overcome a negative situation whereby the previous person was not a good fit for the situation and I consulted with them for 20 years. Through this time, we accomplished numerous goals whereby we reduced their losses and improved their operations.
Future career goal or aspiration – I’m getting close to retiring and looking to pursue some personal goals, such as travelling more.
Go-to comfort food – Chinese food, pizza, and red wine.
Hobbies/Enjoy doing outside of work – I enjoy outdoor activities such as travelling, hiking, and tackling a project at home. It is fun to research the project and develop a plan-of-action to complete it better than a contractor would. I get satisfaction when I can find an effective innovative way to solve a problem which is as effective or better than traditional methods.
Recommended TV series to watch or book to read – I don’t watch broadcast tv, other than sports. Movies are my preferred watch.