Paul Connors ‘00

Alumni Voices

Paul Connors ‘00

Beaver Reflections:
I graduated from Beaver in 2000. I had a rare Beaver experience in that I transferred into Beaver at the beginning of my junior year. Although I was only at Beaver for two years, it was an amazing fit for me. I am fortunate that I had great experiences socially, academically, and athletically. Looking back, Rob Connor was, and is, an extremely gifted educator adept at bringing out the best in his students. His approach to learning had a profound impact on me. Also, playing team sports instilled in me important life lessons that resonate to this day.

What is #happeningnow in your life:
After graduating from Beaver, I went to Vassar College where I played NCAA soccer, squash, and lacrosse and majored in political science with a minor in economics. After graduating from Vassar, I played professional soccer in the Jamaican Premier League. Following my career as a professional athlete, I eventually went to law school and business school in Boston. Armed with an interest in technology, following graduation, I worked at a large law firm, specializing in negotiating technology agreements, including traditional software licenses and cloud-based software contracts. I leveraged that experience into an in-house attorney role doing a wide range of commercial work at athenahealth, a health IT company. After broadening my practice significantly through subsequent experience at Brightcove, a global cloud-based software company, I now am the Head of Legal at Salsify, a hyper-growth tech company on a path to IPO. During much of that time, I have remained involved in soccer, coaching the men’s team at Lasell University with Mike Haynes, the most influential coach of my playing career and the legendary Beaver Boys’ Soccer coach. It is an absolute pleasure to work alongside Mike and is really rewarding for me to serve as a role model for the student-athletes.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have learned a lot about the importance of mindset in fostering resilience. For example, viewing challenges as opportunities is liberating and often leads to the best outcomes.”
– Paul Connors ‘00

Advice to Beaver students:
Whether it is sportsmanship on the playing field, compassion and forgiveness in your personal life, or empathy in your professional life, love and kindness are at the root of all that matters.

Beaver Country Day School admits qualified students of any race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, creed, handicap status, national origin or ethnicity to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, creed, handicap status, national origin or ethinicity in the administration of its educational, admission, financial aid, athletic or other school-administered programs or policies.