Paul Washington is a highly respected business and civic leader with over 30 years of experience in senior operating roles for both commercial and public sector entities. Paul brings deep expertise in corporate board roles; business strategy adn execution; managing a P&L; finance; M&A; law; economic development; and corporate governance.

Paul was most recently the Chief Administrative Officer for IMA Financial Group (IMA), the fifth largest, independently held, commercial insurance brokerage company in the U.S. He oversaw IMA’s governance, administration, and integration of acquired companies. He was president of the company’s venture fund, where he led all early-stage investments in Insurtech companies; having generated a 40% IRR to date. Paul was also responsible for primary oversight of IMA’s 400K sf of commercial real estate, including the development of over 250K sf of office space.

Prior to joining IMA, Paul was a regional president for JLL, a commercial real estate services firm with over 90,000 employees worldwide. He was responsible for developing and executing business strategy, and managing a team of more than 300 professionals, with full responsibility for an $80M P&L for all business units in Colorado, Utah and Idaho. While at JLL, Paul enjoyed 17% average annual revenue growth; developed annual and long-term business strategies; grew to #1 market share in key submarkets; recruited a top-performing multi-family brokerage and finance team; built a 40K sf, award winning, regional HQ office; and recruited more women brokers (as a percentage of total employees) than any other region at JLL.

Prior to his role at JLL, he served as the Executive Director of Economic Development for the City of Denver, a Mayoral-appointed, cabinet-level position. Paul managed a $60M annual budget and a staff of 290 employees where he developed and oversaw the execution of the economic development strategy of the City and County of Denver. Notable accomplishments included the reduction of the default rate on the City’s small business loan portfolio from 18% to 5%; successfully recruiting a dozen corporate and divisional headquarters to Denver; and developing and executing the 2012-2016 JumpStart economic development strategies, which directly influenced the creation and retention of more than 30,000 jobs and leveraged $818M in private capital investment.

Paul also enjoyed a 10-year career in investment banking. He was the founder and president of LJS Holdings, an international investment banking firm, where, among other accomplishments, he represented GHCL Ltd., a large conglomerate based in India, on its acquisition of Dan River, Inc., the 2nd largest textile company in the U.S. He began his career as a corporate attorney, focused on mergers and acquisitions of public companies, for the international law firm of Hogan Lovells.

Paul is considered one of the most influential business and civic leaders in the State of Colorado. In 2019, he was recognized as the Most Admired CEO by the Denver Business Journal. He currently serves on the boards of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka, (FHLB), Catamount Constructors, The Nature Conservancy, Denver Museum
of Nature and Science (DMNS), Rose Community Foundation (RCF) and the Auraria Higher Education Center (AHEC). He formerly served on the board of directors of Independent Bank Group (NASDAQ: IBTX). His board service includes committee chair roles in governance (FHLB), audit (DMNS, co-chair), impact investing (RCF); vicechairperson (CHFA, AHEC, and Univ. of Northern Colorado); and secretary (IMA).

Paul earned both his law degree and his degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was graduate student body president. He also has a master’s degree in tax from the University of Denver.