Paul possibly won’t be too pleased when he sees this article as he doesn’t like a lot of fuss, but there are times when you need to step over the line and this is certainly one.
When Paul joined Nigel (Whittle), Chris (Harman) and I (Nick Forsyth) as a fourth Braintree Partner in 1997, we thought we worked hard, but we weren’t prepared for the diligence to the cause that followed. See featured image above featuring the ‘new’ Braintree lineup (July 1997).
At that time, we knew he was considered a farming expert because we had seen the Institute article he had written on the subject, and it didn’t take long for Nigel and I to hand-over any agricultural relationships that we had to him because a brief conversation on the topic left us feeling a little out of our depth!
The networking group BNI was getting off the ground and Paul threw himself into launching the Braintree group and was successful in portraying himself as the Practitioner to approach if you wanted to start-up. This, in conjunction with his established relationships, allowed him the platform to target the businesses he really wanted to work with, many of whom remain long-standing clients to this day.
Over the years, his number of relationships and contacts in the area grew to a point where he needed to take one of our younger Partners, Craig Weavers, under his wing to pass on the considerable knowledge of the industry that he has learnt over his career.
I am certain that your paths will have crossed at some point whether this be face to face or in some article that Paul has contributed to the website and Newswires over time.
Paul retired as a Partner on 30 June 2023 and moved into a consultancy role for 12 months, before finally retiring his trusty calculator for good on 30 June 2024.
On behalf of our Partners and former Partners who worked alongside him, I offer our heartfelt thanks for his contribution in getting the Firm to where it is today and the platform for where it may go to in the future.
Nick Forsyth – July 2024