Paul Donovan

Paul Donovan is a business leader, investor and philanthropist.

In addition to his role at Eku Energy, Paul also chairs action.ai, an exciting early-stage business that has developed a world-leading conversational artificial intelligence platform to enable customer service automation.

He has over thirty years of experience in senior executive and non-executive roles across the technology, media and telecommunications sectors, in both public and private contexts. He recently served as the CEO of Arqiva, a private equity backed provider of critical data, network and communications services, where he retains a non-executive role. Paul was previously CEO of Odeon and UCI Cinemas Group, Europe’s leading cinema operator.

Before that, Paul was CEO of eir, Ireland’s incumbent telecommunications business, and Regional CEO at Vodafone where he was a member of the Executive Committee and led the Group’s emerging markets businesses. His early career included senior commercial roles at Cable and Wireless, Apple Computer, Coca-Cola and Mars.

He is an investor in more than fifty early-stage businesses, and is a member of OION, one of the oldest and largest angel investment networks in the UK. He is Chair of the Oxford Innovation Growth EIS Fund.

Passionate about enabling life chances, Paul established venture philanthropy fund Our Common Good in 2018, is a founder funder of the Centre for Social Justice Foundation and a patron of The Artis Foundation.

He holds a BA in Scandinavian Studies from University College London.

In 1989 he was awarded an MBA and in 2016 an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Bradford, where he is now a member of the Governing Council.