Paul Suzman

Paul Suzman is an entrepreneur, commercial real estate adviser, and nonprofit leader whose life has been shaped by curiosity, reinvention, and service.

He grew up in South Africa, attended boarding school from the age of 13, completed compulsory military service, and spent part of his early career in farming. Those experiences helped develop the independence and adaptability that later allowed him to move across the world and start again in the United States.

Paul first visited the United States at 20 and became fascinated by its energy and sense of possibility. Rather than describing himself as someone who left South Africa, he says he was drawn toward America. In 1980, he arrived in the Pacific Northwest with few connections and initially returned to something he already knew, helping establish a mushroom farm.

He soon moved into commercial real estate and founded OfficeLease in 1981. Rather than following the traditional model of representing landlords and trying to fill available space, Paul focused exclusively on representing tenants and buyers. He describes this as helping clients understand what they actually need before finding the right property, effectively acting as a guide through decisions they may make only once every five, ten, or fifteen years.

Relationships and integrity became central to the way he built the business. Early in his Seattle career, community leaders helped introduce him to organisations such as the Seattle Chamber of Commerce and Seattle Rotary. One lesson that stayed with him came from a former arms-control negotiator who explained that the easiest way to remember what you said in a negotiation is simply not to lie. Paul adopted transparency and principled negotiation as foundations of his own approach.

The other major strand of Paul's life emerged through service. While helping organise Nelson Mandela's visit to Seattle, he became connected with people who would later establish VillageReach. Founded in 2000, the organisation works to improve access to primary healthcare for communities that are hardest to reach, particularly across Africa. Paul became a founding board member and has remained involved for 25 years.

VillageReach gave Paul a way to combine a successful professional life with work that served a broader purpose. Rather than simply donating, he stayed deeply involved, attending board meetings, helping recruit other board members, and eventually chairing its philanthropy committee. The organisation's work has ranged from vaccine supply chains and healthcare logistics to mobile health services and strengthening public health systems.

Today, Paul continues to work, serve, build relationships, and remain engaged with new ideas. He does not see retirement as an objective. Instead, he worries more about losing curiosity and losing relevance. For him, a meaningful life is one where work, service, relationships, and learning continue to coexist rather than being divided into separate stages.