Paul Chawla is owner and Chief Operating Officer of Johnstone Supply, where they have four locations, Oak Creek, Waukesha, Milwaukee and Fond du lac. He is one of the most jovial people I have ever met, with an unmistakable laugh that you can hear across any room.
Paul is married to his beautiful wife Aushima and has two boys Arman (15) and Nikhil (13) who attend Brookfield Academy.
Paul specializes in solving the difficult problems. In fact, the favorite part of his job is taking customer calls, detecting problems and finding solutions to their most difficult of problems.
Paul’s parents started the business in 1982 and it was always the plan for Paul to join the family business. However, his dad wanted him to get experience working for others before joining the business. So, armed with an Accounting degree, Paul went to work for Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC). After a number of successful years at PWC, it was time to join the business.
Paul started as an Inside Sales rep and eventually took over the Waukesha branch. He kept pushing to do more in the company. He got his wish in 2007, when he began running the day to day operations. Under Paul’s leadership, the company began to grow. The real growth took place in 2016, when he formed an Engineering Department.
I asked Paul what he values most from his Vistage membership. He loves the fellow-member interaction and perspectives. He is stimulated by being around other successful people with similar values.
The most recent book he has read is The Fred Factor, by Mike Sanborn.
Paul’s hobbies are golf, watching football and he’s really good at analyzing fantasy football.
If he can change one thing in the world, he would eradicate COVID-19 forever. In his words, COVID made 2020 so horrible for so many people in so many ways. He would like to eliminate the pain the people suffered as a result of the pandemic.