Downingtown native and West Chester resident Paul Richards is the Director of Marketing at Haverford Systems, an audiovisual design and installation firm that owns and operates several technology companies, two of which are PTZOptics and HuddleCamHD.

Richards, who began working as a paperboy for The Philadelphia Inquirer, earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Moravian College in Bethlehem.

“While Business Management was my major, I spent almost every semester taking photography and digital marketing classes,” he said. “My passion for cameras and photography led to the creation of PTZOptics, the nation’s bestselling PTZ camera brand in its class.”

Richards credits Bill Mullin, the CEO of Starin Marketing, as having the biggest impact on his career.

“Bill helped us grow our business significantly,” said Richards. “He asked to be my mentor at a time when I really needed advice and guidance in my career. Bill and I share a love for God and responsibility for the people we work with. While I can be overly ambitious and driven by profits at times, Bill has taught me to look inward and remember that God is always with us, looking over our shoulders. Bill taught me that it’s always OK to ask for help. Asking for help has been the best way for me to grow, personally and professionally. I am truly blessed to have had a mentor find me at a time when I may not have realized how much the relationship would mean in hindsight.”

Richards said his proudest moment as a professional was making the decision that “a career path in sales was just not going to work.”

“I remember it clearly,” he said. “After a few years of failure, my manager asked me if professional B2B sales was right for me. Working at a family business, I gave myself the freedom to reinvent my career. I gave up all my accounts and started an e-commerce store at our business, which at the time was 100-percent focused on local business. It was good timing because e-commerce was growing, and our particular industry had yet to embrace the opportunity. Today, our business is global, and this year, we are 20 times larger than the day I quit B2B sales.”

Richards’s favorite Chester County restaurant is Pietro’s Prime in West Chester.

“My wife and I love it,” he said. “It’s only a few blocks away from our house, and the music on Wednesday nights is incredible.”