Jim Paglia wants to shake your hand.
At the rate he’s going, he’ll eventually get around to you, most likely cataloging your name and affiliation in that encyclopedic brain of his, a virtual who’s who of Chicago, of Illinois, of–what the heck–the world.
Paglia, by day a mild-mannered Lisle businessman, was on a recent evening standing in the lobby of Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, scanning the streams of incoming concertgoers for faces, shaking hand after hand, sharing quips with this CEO and that big shot and seeming to be on a first-name basis with half the audience.
The event was a concert of the Chicago Sinfonietta, an ethnically diverse professional orchestra of which Paglia is chairman of the board. Recently elected for his fourth term, Paglia has served as one of the organization’s chief volunteers since its inception in 1987.
Paglia, who had never attended a symphonic event until he joined the Sinfonietta board, now attends every concert, sitting in a center box seat when he’s not working the crowd.
“Being with the Sinfonietta is consistent with a bigger picture for myself,” said Paglia, trying to explain why he expends so much energy for the orchestra and why he spends nearly a third of his working day on one volunteer project or another. “I believe you have to give each person a chance to start at the same place. The Sinfonietta represents education and exposure so that every child is exposed to every career path. Most kids aren’t exposed to the arts as careers.”
The Sinfonietta’s musicians are around 60 percent female, 25 percent black and about 10 percent other minorities.
“When I first met Jim it was a real meeting of the minds,” said Paul Freeman, maestro and music director of the Sinfonietta. “(Board members) were immediately impressed with him. Since then, he has been our top volunteer. He has done a spectacular job for us.”
Aside from being hard working and committed, Paglia, of Aurora, has helped link the Sinfonietta with corporations, foundations and individuals that provide grants and donations.
“What’s really staggering is how well he is networked in the community,” Freeman said. “He has brought to our organization the heads of corporations and others who have been responsible for sponsorships.”
For example, Paglia knew Mike Johnstone, the president of TCF Bank, and got him involved with the Sinfonietta. This year TCF Bank is the official presenter of all the orchestra’s concerts at Dominican University (formerly Rosary College) in River Forest.
But the Sinfonietta is only one of Paglia’s high-profile affiliations. Among them:
– He was the chairman of World Cup Chicago 1994, a coalition of key business people who were instrumental in snaring for the city the World Cup, international soccer’s greatest event.
– He has just stepped down as chairman of the greater Illinois chapter of the March of Dimes, which he has served in various volunteer positions for the last 10 years.
– He is also on the Northern Illinois University Advisory Board, the board of his neighborhood homeowners association, and the advisory board of the Illinois Fatherhood Initiatives, which promotes responsible fatherhood, as well as a founding board member of the Soccer in the Streets program.
Paglia’s involvement with women’s soccer in Illinois prompted officials for the state’s women’s program to name one of their trophies the Jim Paglia Award. He has coached women’s soccer at Northwestern University but has scaled back his involvement to the point where he now coaches only his daughter’s team of 6-year-olds.
“He helped rebuild the women’s league in Illinois,” said Flo Dyson, president of the Illinois Women’s Soccer League, an organization that represents some 650 youth teams and 30 women’s teams. “He’s someone we can always depend on. When I need something, he’s the man. Our current logo, for example, was designed by his people and donated by him. He has lots of good common sense and keeps things in perspective.”
The league has other trophies named for others prominent in soccer, but only one, Paglia’s, is named for an American.
Paglia’s sports interests aren’t limited to soccer. He wrote a book on volleyball as well as a volleyball pamphlet that is now distributed in every volleyball purchase by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.
“I’ve always been joining things,” said Paglia, 45, admitting that his high school yearbook referred to him as “Most Involved.” Even in his teenage years in upstate New York he was pushing the outside of the envelope, getting things done, he said.
Perhaps at this time he started a lifelong pattern: Tell Paglia something is impossible or that he won’t be allowed to do it and he’ll figure out a way to do it anyway. On his first day of high school, the guidance counselor told him he was not college material and that he probably had a social or learning disability. For his own good, he was told he was being put on a trade or manual skills track and would not be able to take college entrance classes.
Undaunted, Paglia persuaded one teacher after another to offer classes that interested him, including journalism and public speaking. Eventually he graduated with honors but without ever taking college entrance classes.
He also graduated while living independently with his twin brother, who was kicked out of the house by their father. The twins agreed that they would work to put each other through college, first Jim’s brother, then Jim.
Paglia, meanwhile, got a general service contract with the Rochester Lancers, a professional soccer team in New York. That meant he did everything from play soccer with the team to paint the hallway, run clinics and get sponsors.
“I had played soccer for years, but I wasn’t a star,” he said. “I was the only English-speaking person on the team.”
In his part of New York state, he said, the most popular high school game was soccer, and he never felt good enough to play with his school team. But his experiences with the Lancers gave him a valuable understanding of soccer, just before it was to explode in the U.S.
During this time, he also was tapped to run the college student division of a statewide campaign to pass an environmental bond issue. Against opposition from organized labor, agriculture and industry, the bond passed by a 5-1 margin.
Those two endeavors, working with the Lancers and with state politicians, made Paglia realize he had a gift for organization and networking. He also had learned so much about marketing that by the time it was his turn to go to college it would have cost him a lucrative career.
“So I’ve never been to college,” he said. “That’s a little embarrassing.”
But had he attended college, he would not have gotten his career off to an early, high-powered start. After he left the Lancers, he worked for a New York advertising firm that had among its clients McDonald’s Corp. When McDonald’s hired a new public relations firm based in Chicago, the company moved Paglia to this area to tend the new account.
McDonald’s was only one of his high-visibility accounts. Others have included Taco Bell Restaurants, Wendy’s International and the Olive Garden.
In 1986, he and a partner started a marketing communications and advertising agency called Tassani & Paglia, which grew from $3 million to $50 million in revenues within three years. They added to their roster of big-name firms such corporations as Arthur Andersen, American Express, Kemper and First Alert.
Neither his hard-charging advertising career nor charitable work kept him from pursuing other interests, however. About four years ago, he tried to get into a pickup game of volleyball at a local club but was ignored by the other players who could tell he was a novice. In typical Paglia fashion, this spurred him to action.
He began researching volleyball and soon had written an entire book on the topic, unpublished. Later he condensed that book down to a 26-page pamphlet and persuaded the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association to buy one million copies. Not long ago, he started a sandlot volleyball program in his neighborhood. Today, he said he is usually one of the first ones picked.
It was his interest in volleyball that started his long-term association 11 years ago with the March of Dimes. The organization was looking for someone to run a volleyball tournament, which he did, not just once but six or seven years in a row. Since then, Paglia has worked on a wide range of activities for the March of Dimes, most recently as chairman of the Greater Illinois Chapter.
“He’s extremely creative,” said Ed Stark, executive director of the March of Dimes Greater Illinois Chapter. “He has designed a number of events for us and has traveled all over the country on the March of Dimes’ behalf.”
About 2 1/2 years ago, Paglia sold out his interest in Tassani & Paglia and started his own small firm, In’s & Out’s, a marketing communications company headquartered on Warrenville Road in Lisle. Among his current clients are IBM; Sverdrup, an engineering firm; AT&T; Harris Bank; and Acorn Windows.
Visitors to In’s & Out’s can’t help but notice a pinball game sitting in a corner of the office’s sitting area.
“It’s `Space Shuttle,”‘ said Paglia. “I play it all the time. It was the first thing I bought when I started this company. I still had no office furniture and everything was in boxes. A friend had suggested I get something frivolous, a tension reliever.”
Paglia tries to discipline himself to play only as a reward for finishing some task, but occasionally he is challenged to a game by an office neighbor or co-worker.
In an image-conscious business, Paglia acknowledges that it’s not just for fun, however: “I want people to know this is a place that appreciates fun and competitiveness.”
Not a bad idea for a guy who probably has a “social disability.”
