Paul Tasner: It’s Never Too Late to Start a Business

Shaping Opinion

Entrepreneur Paul Tasner joins Tim to talk about his unique story of becoming a successful entrepreneur after the age of 66. He’s the founder of a growing company called PulpWorks, a company that’s focused on sustainability, solving the problems of toxic plastic packaging. In this episode, Paul talks about the time he lost his job, which for most people would end their careers. But for him it marked a new beginning. https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Paul_Tasner_Final_auphonic.mp3 For most people, when you’re 64 years old, you’re either already retired or you’re in the final stages of planning for your retirement. For Paul Tasner, he faced the prospects of regrouping after the fallout of being fired from his job, and then he had a decision to make: ease into retirement, or start something new? He chose the latter after two years of consulting and research, so by the age of 66, Paul became the founder of a company called PulpWorks, which became quite popular as the societal push for sustainability grew and grew. We talk with Paul about his journey. Links PulpWorks (website) Paul Tasner TED Talk, TED Paul Tasner Became an Entrepreneur at 66, Career Pivot About this Episode’s Guest Paul Tasner PulpWorks is the capstone in a 40-year career in supply chain management for Paul. Earlier, he held leadership positions in procurement, manufacturing, and logistics in ventures ranging from start-up to Fortune 100. Included among them are: The Clorox Company (consumer packaged goods), California Closet Company (home furnishings), Method Products (consumer packaged goods), Hepagen (vaccines), OM2 (supply chain consultancy), and the Reclipse Group (supply chain consultancy). His clients have included: Clif Bar, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis Consumer Health, Borden Chemical, Dial Corporation, Unilever, and Industrial Light+Magic. In 2008, Paul founded and continues to lead the San Francisco Bay Area Green Supply Chain Forum – the first such assembly of supply chain executives anywhere. He has authored many papers and presentations on supply chain sustainability and currently lectures on this timely topic in the MBA Programs at San Francisco State University and Golden Gate University as well as the Packaging Engineering Department at San Jose State University. He is an Industrial Engineering graduate of the New Jersey Institute of Technology and holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Boston University.