Born and raised in Santa Rosa, Laguna, the last thing that Paulo Puzon imagined himself becoming was a car product specialist. He was a car enthusiast and loved all things automotive—driving, magazines, Gran Turismo—but selling them was never on the list. An Industrial Engineering graduate from the Mapua Institute of Technology,he looked up to Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Robert Kiyosaki, and dreamt of one day making it into the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) or onto the front page of Forbes Magazine. While all he got was a spot in the Crosstown Basketball Team and a feature in this issue of the Filipino Journal, life nevertheless has an interesting way of leading him to a career at Crosstown Auto Centre.

When Paulo was fresh off the boat in Edmonton, Alberta in 2010, Shoppers Drug Mart was the first to take him under its wing. Like most new immigrants, he started at the bottom and penny-pinched his way through the retailing sandbox. Not too long after, he entered a more technical job and spent the next four years as a machine operator at LogiCan Technologies and at Regent Energy Group.

When the opportunity to work in the oil industry knocked on his door in 2015, he answered, and for the next three years he drove to and from work 160km a day to study proposals and produce cost estimates for Shell Scotford. Then, Crosstown happened, and the rest is history.

With his wife currently in the Philippines, this half newlywed, half bachelor believes that life’s a beach, and makes it a point to hit the beach whenever he goes back home to the Philippines. Here in Canada, you would most probably find him at home engrossed in his PC games, at the court playing basketball, or on the road taking his 2018 Jeep Cherokee Trail hawk for a rough ride. Don’t be surprised,however, if one day you see him in a Grand Cherokee or Jeep Wrangler with a cupid bow’s smile on his face.

So that’s Paulo Puzon for you guys—the newest addition to Crosstown Auto Centre’s Filipino Connection team.