Paul Earle

Paul W. Earle, Jr. is a brand and innovation professional, entrepreneur, intrapreneur and lecturer with significant experience in design, the development of new products and services, new venture formation, intellectual property licensing, marketing communications of all kinds and traditional brand management and strategy.

At present, Paul is Principal of Paul Earle & Co., a new, modern innovation consultancy and venture platform that helps leading corporations convert Mind Into Matter. He is also a faculty member at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, where he co-teaches the popular Corporate Innovation and New Ventures class, an intensive immersion that pairs student teams with top corporate partners such as McDonald's, Visa, Procter & Gamble, United Airlines and Hyatt. Paul also created and hosts "Origin Stories of Innovation," a podcast interview series on innovation leadership, and has published numerous written works.

Prior to launching his latest enterprise, Paul was Executive Director of Farmhouse, the innovation and new venture center of the global creative agency Leo Burnett. Founded by Paul in partnership with Leo Burnett management in 2011 and operating successfully through 2016, Farmhouse developed new brands, new product and service concepts, and other new kinds of designed experiences for premier clients such as Procter & Gamble, McDonald's, Kellogg's, Allstate, E&J Gallo and others. While at Burnett, Paul also co-authored the strategy that led to "Publicis90," an open innovation platform (the first of its kind in the big agency world) that to date has been the repository for more than 3,000 innovation ideas throughout the global network of parent company Publicis Groupe, as well as external startups and academic research centers.

On his own, prior to joining Burnett, amongst other adventures, Paul was part of the founding team that created and launched ANGEL'S ENVY, a whiskey brand that achieved near instant success and would ultimately be acquired by Bacardi in 2015.

From 2001 to 2009, Paul served as Founder and President of River West Brands LLC, a dormant brand acquisition and redevelopment company that later became part of Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC). River West acquired and relaunched well-known but distressed brand properties such as COLECO toys, BRIM coffee, EAGLE snacks, NUPRIN analgesics, SALON SELECTIVES hair care, and a number of other icons. Paul and his work earned feature-length profiles in the New York Times, NBC's Today Show, NPR, BBC and other prominent media.

Earlier, Paul worked in brand management at Kraft Foods Inc., and at Saatchi & Saatchi in New York, for mainly the General Mills and Johnson & Johnson clients.

Paul holds a BA from Hamilton College and an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. He lives in the Chicago area with his wife and two sons.

Education MBA, 1999, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

BA, 1993, Hamilton College

Other Professional Experience Account Management, Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, 1993-1997

President, River West Brands, 2001-2011

Brand Management, Kraft Foods, 1998-2000

Executive Director, Farmhouse, Leo Burnett, 2012-present

Education Other Professional Experience