Paul Collins

Paul is the Founder and Chairman of Equiteq. He leads the Board of Directors, contributes to company strategy, and supports the leadership team in executing the business plan. Externally, Paul works closely with client boardrooms and shareholders, helping them capitalize on the businesses they’ve built. Drawing on his own journey—growing and selling his $100m firm—Paul has personally led 15 companies to successful transactions.

Value to clients

Paul provides strategic guidance to business owners and boards on key aspects of growth and value realization, including:

• M&A strategy and execution
• Valuation and exit planning
• Scaling operations and driving equity growth
• Raising investment and maximizing transaction outcomes

He brings a rare combination of entrepreneurial flair and commercial insight, grounded in hands-on experience:

• Built, scaled, acquired, and sold multiple consultancies
• Expert at assessing equity value and unlocking growth potential
• Skilled at structuring and negotiating high-value deals
• A trusted partner for board-level decision-making

Experience

Paul began his career leading IBM’s ‘just-in-time’ manufacturing initiatives in the UK, where he developed a deep understanding of value creation through continuous improvement. After honing his consulting skills at A.T. Kearney, he founded World Class International (now WCI Group). Under his leadership, WCI grew to £63m in revenue with 350 staff and was partially sold to private equity in 2002. Paul stepped down as CEO in 2004 and launched Equiteq in 2005. Since then, he has guided numerous clients toward liquidity events, with 15 completing successful transactions and many more on the path.

Other things about Paul

• Created 11 millionaires through the sale of WCI
• Winner of the Financial Times Top 100 ‘Fastest Profit Growth’ award
• Two-time recipient of the Sunday Times ‘Best Company to Work For’ award
• Has founded three consulting and tech firms, acquired two, and sold four as principal shareholder
• Passionate saltwater fly fisherman—often found on or in the water somewhere around the world
• Proud father of a PhD candidate at Cambridge University, researching cancer cures