Paul Callaghan

Paul is Chairman of Leighton, the Sunderland-based technology and communications group that he founded. Leighton operates in over 45 countries on 6 continents and in 10 languages at the cutting edge of new technology and currently has four companies based in the North East that lead the UK in their respective markets.

Paul founded Domain Names.com in 1997 and helped it to grow to become one of Europe’s largest domain name registrars before selling it to VeriSign in 2000. Ernst and Young voted Paul the ‘Northern E-business Entrepreneur of the Year’ in 2000 and in 2005 he was voted the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ in the Portfolio Awards.

He is a founder director of the Entrepreneurs Forum, Chairman of RTC North, a Governor of Sunderland University and is the David Goldman Visiting Professor of Business Innovation at Newcastle University. Paul was Chairman of Business Link Tyne Wear from 2003 until 2006 and in July 2006 took on the Chair of Business Link North East and was key in the reorganisation of the service by One NorthEast.