Paul MacKinnon
Founder & CEO
Ever since I was a young boy I have been fascinated with automobiles and technology. When I was about 4 years old, my childhood friend, Will Baker, founding CFO of Zapify, and I used to play in my front yard with Matchbox cars and discuss which cars that drove by on our street were our favorites. Years later, when I was about 13 years old, I made friends with an older neighbor who was the Chief Engineer at a major technology firm. This neighbor took another friend and I under his wing and taught us about the mechanical and electrical aspects of cars. To make his lessons easy for us to understand, he gave us a car that was not running for us to practice on. He helped us fix this car and once it was running, he allowed us to drive it on the trails of his rather large property. This repair project inspired him to get his vintage Jaguar running, with our assistance. In addition to the automotive lessons, he had an electronics laboratory in his house where he would teach us about electrical components and how they worked. I realize how lucky I was to have him in my life and cherish his mentorship to this day.
Because of my experience working on these cars, I sought out another neighbor who owned a large, high volume, service station. I convinced this business owner to hire me and on my first day of work, he picked me up in a 1957 Ford Thunderbird with porthole windows. How cool is that! I quickly learned about and conducted all types of repairs and by the age of 17, I managed the repair of a fleet of trucks each Saturday. Also, although I was in a college prep program, each Wednesday after school I attended a course in automotive mechanics at the local Vo-Tech. I knew that I was going to go to college and move on to a professional career, but I wanted to use the opportunity to learn more about my passion for cars.
After college and graduate school, I have started and run a number of companies and organizations within other companies, many of these have focused in either automotive or technology. For a large portion of my professional life, I have been a Management Consultant and have conducted strategy and performance improvement projects in many industries. I have great memories about my automotive projects because they bring me back to my childhood passion.
This is why I decided to start Zapify. It’s a timely business that focuses on helping move the automotive industry to it’s next horizon. Like when I was 4 years old, join me in picking and driving the best cars on the road, and let’s Zapify them!