Meet Paul

Paul was born in Park Ridge, Illinois. He was blessed to be part of a large Italian-American family. His father was a well-known restaurateur in Chicago and his mother was a housewife with many talents. Paul’s work ethic and values were established at an early age by watching and interacting with an “old school” network of family, friends, and neighbors.

Paul had a pretty normal high school and college experience. He was not a star student or a great athlete, but he was good enough in both to open doors that would lead to his real calling in life. Along the way, he realized that he had a knack for communicating and reaching people through what he wrote and what he said. Armed with these skills and a quick wit, he started his sales career at the age of 15 at beautiful and historic Wrigley Field selling Coca-Cola for 25 cents for each cup. Still the best job Paul has ever had in his career.

Unfortunately, working as a vendor would not support Paul and his young family. After too much fun and making many lifelong friends at Illinois State University, he began is “real” sales career in the computer industry before the computer industry was cool. Without a cell phone, the Internet and social media, he was forced to develop relationships the old fashion way …. through personal interaction. The valuable experience during the first ten years of his career and the world class sales and marketing training he received through companies like Monroe Systems for Business, Decision Data, Control Data, and IBM was a valuable foundation for his business career and now Torque Consulting.

As a freshly minted MBA from Loyola University Chicago in 1989, Paul joined LaSalle Partners, a small corporate real estate services company in Chicago. Even though he had ten years of sales and marketing experience, LaSalle Partners asked Paul to begin his real estate career on the property management side of the business, with the promise he would run his own small business as the general manager of a Class A office building within two years. That promise was kept and Paul took over as the GM of Commerce Plaza in Oak Brook, Illinois. He was responsible for all aspects of the business, including leading a team comprised of managers, administrative staff, engineers, security officers, and 3rd party contractors. The Commerce Plaza team received several firm wide awards and industry recognition with Paul at the helm.

When a leasing broker was sorely needed at a large suburban office park, a LaSalle Partners executive exclaimed, “Hey, Petricca is a sales guy … he can do the job!” Paul moved to the leasing side of the business for the next few years where he combined his computer industry sales experience with his property management expertise. This unique blend of skills proved to be a good recipe for success as a leasing broker. Paul was consistently recognized as a top performer and even nominated for Broker of the Year.

At some point, many good sales people are asked to be managers. Paul was asked to go back to the management side of the business in 1996 to lead the Midwest Property Management team. Two years later he was asked to switch again to lead the Midwest Agency Leasing business. Bios like this always just point out the good stuff, but over the eight years Paul was a regional manager, a lot of really good stuff happened, including growth in all areas of the business.

In 2004, LaSalle Partners became known as Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) and Paul was known for being one of the top business development and client relationship professionals in the company. He was asked to focus exclusively on growing the leasing and management business in the Midwest by developing deeper relationships with our largest clients.

Enter Tom (Griff) Griffin, a fun loving, hard-working, unorthodox manager, who invited Paul to join an exclusive new national client team called, “The Rangers”. Griff put together a small and agile team of real estate professionals representing each major market to show the love to a select group of clients. The Rangers quickly earned the respect of JLL’s best clients and the team enjoyed a cool brand in the real estate industry known for a more conservative approach to the business.

Paul spent 14 years as a Ranger developing business and personal relationships with many of the top real estate executives in the U.S. For his efforts on behalf of JLL and his clients, Paul was recognized several times as a “Top Gun” (not like Tom Cruise). JLL Top Guns represent the top 10% of performers in the company. He credits the many wingmen and wingwomen he has worked with, especially Shannon Richardson and many talented young analysts.

In addition to watching the Chicago Cubs play whenever he can, Paul has two primary hobbies. He teaches hitting to baseball and softball hitters of all ages, he is a volunteer college hitting coach, and he is the author of a book on hitting. He also teaches the customer relationship management class he developed to undergraduate business students at Wheaton College and graduate business students at The Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago. It turns out both of these passions have turned into callings at this stage in his life.

Paul enjoys spending time with his family, writing his baseball and softball hitting blog, riding his bike across the great state of Iowa, and he is a baseball (and softball) nut. He is an avid fan of the World Champion Chicago Cubs and enjoys attending games with family and friends. He has been married to his wife Tammy for over 35 years and has three children; Elaine, Sam and Rick who also love the game.