Paul Francis

About Paul

Paul Francis is an award-winning senior executive with extensive board-level experience in financial services, recognised by the Australian Institute of Management with the Professional Manager of the Year Award for both Toowoomba and Queensland. His career spans the development and transformation of physical distribution networks, branch operations, mortgage broking, contact centre operations, and the creation of a financial planning business from inception through to successful sale. He is co-author of The Leadership Question and has designed and led high-performance sales leadership conferences as well as presenting at numerous industry events.

What gives Paul's keynotes their particular credibility is the dual nature of his evidence. In business he has built sales cultures grounded in structured planning, accountability, and values — delivering consistent growth at institutions including Heritage Bank. Outside business, he is a competitive age-group triathlete who has completed 20 full Ironman Triathlons, including the prestigious World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. That parallel is not decorative: his presentations draw direct and specific connections between the discipline, mental resilience, and goal architecture required in endurance sport and those required to lead high-performing teams through sustained pressure.

Paul works well in financial services conferences, leadership development forums, and events where the audience is already commercially sophisticated and responds to practical insight over motivational abstraction. His approach is described by clients as courageous, disciplined, and authentic — and his track record of helping organisations including Summerland Credit Union and Warwick Credit Union build retail leadership capability makes him a particularly strong fit for sales leadership and culture-change events.