About Paul Sharman
Paul Sharman was raised in England and moved to Canada in his mid 20s. He has lived in Canada for over 35 years, more than 20 of them in Halton region, having lived in Oakville and Burlington.
Paul Sharman was elected to serve on Burlington City Council as the Ward 5 representative on October 25, 2010. He is thankful and honoured to have been given the opportunity to represent citizens’ interests.
Paul’s family is growing up. He has three children. Jennifer presently lives in England where she is studying at Durham University to earn a PhD in Archaeology. Geoffrey works as marketing manager for an energy related company. He and his wife Carmen have two lovely babies and Paul is enjoying his new role of grandfather! Ashley, Paul's youngest daughter, lives with him and is studying Psychology at McMaster University.
Prior to being elected Ward 5 Councillor, Paul had a successful career in accountancy. He is a Chartered Management Accountant, registered in England. He held a number of management accounting roles at Levi Strauss and Northern Telecom, including controllership positions. He set up a consulting business in 1988 and continued serving clients throughout North America and around the world until 2004, when he assumed the role of President and CEO of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), one the world's largest accounting associations, based in New Jersey. He was named as one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People” in the US accounting world in 2005, 2006 and 2007 by “Accounting Today”.
In the community, Paul was a member of the Pinedale Community Association team that successfully retained Sherwood Forest Park as a green space for sports and the community. He is a member of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce and served on the Political Action Committee. He also served on the Shape Burlington steering committee. In addition, he was involved in other activities relating to Burlington Transit and the City's 2010 budget.
Paul is committed to a number of objectives this term as confirmed by Ward 5 residents.
These are:
- Control tax increases;
- Manage city and region spending to maximize value for the communities we serve;
- Represent the interests of the people of Ward 5 specifically and Burlington in general;
- Work with the community to establish priorities, create measures and goals and establish accountability for all aspects of operations; and
- Maintain focus on the quality of life for Ward 5 and Burlington citizens by ensuring that long term plans are deeply sensitive to stated interests of the citizens and give proper consideration to our changing circumstances.