Paul Allen

Paul is a mission-driven entrepreneur, tech visionary, and lecturer on entrepreneurship and innovation, technology, strengths psychology, workplace culture, and human potential. Paul has founded 8 companies in his 29-year career in tech.

Paul has said that if he has one entrepreneurial superpower, it’s asking questions at scale. He first asked how we can connect to our past – the answer? Founding Ancestry.com. He now asks how we can connect to our future. He answers, as he usually does, in grand fashion – by becoming the world’s foremost thought leader on the Strengths Movement. First at Gallup and now at Soar.com, Paul is on a mission to help every person, executive, team, and company understand their unique abilities.

Paul is best known for founding Ancestry.com in 1997 (now worth 2.6 Billion). He was its original CEO and he created the content subscription business model and marketing strategies. He served in many executive roles as Ancestry became the leading genealogy company in the world.

From 2012-2017 Paul was Global Strengths Evangelist for Gallup, helping lead a worldwide movement to bring strengths psychology into schools and workplaces. The StrengthsFinder 2.0 customer base grew from 7 million to 16 million during that time.

Paul taught entrepreneurship and marketing at the university level for 4 years. He serves on the National Advisory Board for the Utah Valley University School of Business. He is a director of the Human Justice Foundation, which aims to change the emphasis in the criminal justice system from punishment and retribution to compassion and rehabilitation.

Paul has travelled and spoken extensively about how to unlock potential in individuals and build positive, strengths-based cultures. Through a unique blend of current, topical data, and personal, moving storytelling, Paul gives his audiences both the motivation and the information they need to turn his keynote into action.