Paul Wilks

Posted: October 11th, 2022

He is currently a deputy chairman of the Trustee Board

Paul Wilks graduated from Exeter University in 1974, following which he qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1977. In 1978 he joined the Group Finance Head Office of a large UK multi-national plc and in 1981 was seconded to be Group Finance Director of its subsidiary in Harare, Zimbabwe where he helped build, by acquisitions, a substantial group in local terms.

Following a management buy-out of the Zimbabwean assets, in 1987 he returned to London to become Group Finance Director of the small but fully listed FTSE UK company which held the Zimbabwean assets.

In 1993 he joined the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority in Maseru, Lesotho as Head of Financial Planning on, at the time, one of the world’s biggest water infrastructure projects, providing water to South Africa and hydro-electricity to Lesotho.

Leaving Africa in February 1997, Paul joined Mirror Group plc as Head of Management Information within Group Finance and in November 1999 he was appointed by the Company to the MGN Trustee Board. Subsequently in 2001 he became Trinity Mirror’s Head of Group Reporting and in 2006 its Group Financial Controller. Paul intended to retire from Trinity Mirror on his 65^th birthday in March 2018 but this was delayed by the Group’s acquisition of Express Newspapers. He was then asked to transfer to Express Newspapers as Interim Financial Controller to help oversee and transition its finance team into Group procedures and reporting. This interim post lasted 8 months and Paul finally retired from Reach, after over 21 years of service, at the end of October 2018.