Paul Saunders has always done things his own way but never thought he would one day be running his own company known as James River Capital. He was brought up in the suburbs of Richmond and proved to be proficient at academics from a young age. As such, he could have gone to any college in the world and, though he was tempted to enroll in one of the Ivy League universities, he ultimately decided to stay local. So after enrolling in UVA, he was not sure what kind of career he wanted to have until he discovered the wide world of economics. After getting his BA in the spring of 77, he went on to grad school at the University of Chicago where he would pursue his MBA. Once he graduated in 1979, he went on to be a part of the corporate finance department at WPB. He served in this role for less than a year until getting a job in the commodity department at A G Becker as the 80s rolled around. This proved to be a role that was much more up his alley and he thrived in it. In fact, he even got promoted to a director position after just 3 years but this was when thing began to go downhill. He was a firm but fair boss to all of his staff but it was not long before it all came crashing down. After almost 15 years with them, they got bought out by a huge corporation & as such got laid off. Thinking it was time for a fresh start, he packed up all his stuff and moved his family back to his old home in Richmond. This is when he got the idea for James River Capital, a company where all the staff who worked there would never have to worry about getting fired due to forces beyond their control. It was named after one of the local bodies of water and he was not sure if he would have what it takes to start his own company but has been successful.