BIOGRAPHY
Dr (Robert) Paul Davis was born in the UK and educated at Balshaw’s Grammar School, St Anne’s College of Further Education, and King’s College, Cambridge. After graduating first class in Law, he gained a master’s degree in Criminology before emigrating to Canada.
His conversion to Canadian legal practice started with a second master’s degree (with distinction) from Dalhousie, following which he moved to Ottawa to teach at the Faculty of Law and simultaneously write his doctoral thesis. Sentencing in Canada was subsequently published as the standard text on the subject under the guidance of noted judge Walter Tarnopolsky of the International Court of Justice.
He was called to the bar in Ontario in 1982, but within a couple of years moved into business. With the advent of the Internet he founded the world’s first online currency exchange, and grew its related physical exchange until its sale in 2000. He moved to Ireland to commence globalization of a Canadian financial services conglomerate, taking it into some 35 new countries by 2008. At the end of that year he moved to the Isle of Man and founded Counting House (IOM) Ltd., a global online gaming consultancy which numbered most of the world’s leading operators among its clients.
During those formative years Paul took on several other challenges, qualifying as an aerobics instructor in 1996 and as an airline pilot in 2008. In 2006 he ran his first (and last) marathon on his 50th birthday. He accepted an appointment as General Counsel to the Pacific Network group in 2009, managing litigation matters for the group to this day. While on the Isle of Man Paul founded Manx Rare Breeds Ltd., a farming enterprise which contributed heavily to the efforts of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. His family continues to breed endangered Manx Loaghtan sheep at the family farm on the island.
Paul and his family moved to Canada again in 2019, just before COVID-19 became a household word. Through the Pandemic he managed and kept alive St Paul’s Advocacy Office in Vancouver, catering to the needs of homeless, addicted and disadvantaged minorities for whom life was made immeasurably more difficult by the health crisis.
Paul is outspokenly committed to a personal moral code shaped by his experience as a lifelong Anglican, valuing tolerance of all religions and freedom of choice in all aspects of life. He believes passionately that language is the key to understanding cultures with the result that he is multilingual, a polished presenter in clear English tailored for foreign students to understand, and deeply interested in other religions and cultures. After completing an accountancy degree at the University of British Columbia in 2023 he manifested his thirst for knowledge by entering the MBA Program at Hult International Business School (Boston campus), from which he expects to graduate in 2025.
Paul is happily married, father to three accomplished children (a CPA, chemist and trainee engineer), a dog lover and devotes substantial hours every week to volunteer activities in the UBC community.