Paul O'Donnell

Paul O’Donnell is a senior commercial leader, interim executive and business transformation specialist with a track record of helping service-led organisations improve revenue, margin, commercial discipline and market position. He works particularly well with founder-led, investor-backed and board-led businesses that have strong potential but need sharper commercial focus, stronger execution, better propositions or a more disciplined route to growth.

Paul brings a rare blend of hands-on Managing Director, Chief Commercial Officer and Senior Partner experience. His background spans commercial strategy, revenue growth, business turnaround, sales leadership, negotiation, go-to-market design, proposition development, enterprise client management and board-level advisory. He has worked across consulting, professional services, training, technology, financial services, FMCG, public sector and manufacturing, giving him the ability to quickly understand complex commercial environments and identify where value is being lost, delayed or under-leveraged.

His strength lies in turning commercial ambition into practical execution. Paul is not simply a strategist; he is an operator who can diagnose performance issues, reshape offers, improve pipeline quality, strengthen client value propositions, lead commercial teams and create the rhythm, focus and accountability required to deliver measurable results. He is particularly effective in businesses between £5m and £10m revenue where growth has stalled, leadership teams need commercial clarity, or the organisation is preparing for scale, exit, restructure or renewed market positioning.

Paul has delivered significant commercial impact across multiple leadership roles. As Managing Director of Conflict Management Plus, he led commercial growth strategy for a £5m services firm, delivering 50% revenue expansion and adding £750k revenue through service diversification and targeted commercial execution. He secured and renegotiated a £2m per annum MOD contract, improved commercial governance, supported the transition to an Employee Ownership Trust, increased inbound leads by 50% year-on-year, and pioneered an AI-enabled bid model that doubled tender win rates.

As Interim Chief Commercial Officer at Imparta, Paul led global commercial strategy across a £9.7m business, delivering £1.2m EBITDA, 76% margin and 30% year-on-year growth. He launched a Virtual Sales Academy proposition that generated £650k revenue within six months and supported US expansion, scaling projected revenue from $1.6m to $5m. At Quanta Training, he transformed the corporate division of a £6.5m business, achieved 99% of margin targets and commercialised a new leadership proposition that generated £250k of new business in its first year.

Earlier in his career, Paul spent nearly a decade as Senior Partner at The Gap Partnership, a global negotiation consultancy, where he held accountability for £3.8m revenue within a £35m global business and delivered 51% year-on-year growth across key global accounts. This experience shaped his deep expertise in negotiation, commercial decision-making and value creation — capabilities that remain central to his work with boards, investors, founders and leadership teams today.

Paul is especially valuable in interim and turnaround environments because he combines speed of diagnosis with commercial pragmatism. He can step into ambiguity, assess what is really driving underperformance, and create a clear plan that connects strategy, proposition, pipeline, people and execution. He is comfortable working with boards and investors, but equally effective at rolling up his sleeves with sales, marketing, operations and delivery teams to get change moving.

His core strengths include commercial turnaround, revenue acceleration, P&L leadership, EBITDA improvement, enterprise negotiation, go-to-market strategy, proposition design, contract optimisation, tender improvement, leadership coaching and AI-enabled commercial transformation.

Paul is a strong fit for organisations that need an experienced interim commercial leader to stabilise, sharpen or scale the business. He is particularly suited to assignments involving stalled growth, underperforming sales functions, weak propositions, margin pressure, leadership transition, investor scrutiny, founder dependency, complex contracts, major bids, or preparation for exit.

In simple terms, Paul helps businesses clarify where value sits, remove the commercial friction that is holding growth back, and build the discipline, confidence and capability to convert opportunity into measurable performance.