Board member
Paul Fahey
Shareholder/ Director of EasyBox Italy & Storage World UK
Chairman of Spaceplus Germany
Paul Fahey: Begin, Develop, Exit, Repeat
Paul Fahey is Chairman of EasyBox Italy, (and founder of) Storage World UK, and has recently been appointed Chairman of SpacePlus Germany. Combined, they encompass 25 stores and are rapidly expanding.
Mr Fahey first entered the self-storage industry in 1999. His first venture grew under his guidance and exited through a sale to a listed operator in 2002. He has repeated this feat 3 more times (with more to come), cementing his role as one of the most successful self storage developers in Europe. His operations have received accolades and awards and have been highly sought after by investors and growing operators alike.
Prior to a career in self storage, Mr Fahey joined the moving and logistics industry at 18 years old and went on to join the British Association of Removers (BAR), the movers' trade association, and its Board of Directors while still in his early 20s. Since then, he has continuously served on the Board, as Director, Chairman or Special Advisor to trade industry bodies in the UK, Europe and Asia. In addition to his executive roles, he provides advice and consultancy to self storage operators seeking to improve operations, profitability and investment attractiveness to self storage businesses around the world.
A History of Community Support
For over 24 years, Mr Fahey has generously shared his expertise with the self storage and moving industries. He joined the moving business as a teenager in 1981 and quickly rose to take a place on the board of the venerable British Association of Removers (BAR) in the UK.
He appreciates a community of operators that share information and values the opportunity to bring together operators, investors and trade suppliers at association meetings and conferences. He understands that a thriving trade association is a positive influence on the industry generally, directly and indirectly, promoting high standards that improve consumers' image of the industry. He could see it was an important voice for the industry and was often called upon to defend the industry and its interests.
In 1999 Paul joined the self storage industry. Since then, the UK and European industry has grown ten-fold. Then, the SSAUK had a single WFH staffer. Mr Fahey joined the SSAUK when he joined the sector and became a director the following year.
His experience at the BAR lent to his tireless efforts to help the SSAUK upgrade its conferences, launch a new SSAUK Magazine, and create working groups and committees. Increasing the engagement of the national operators in the sector empowered the establishment of a full-time association executive management including a full-time CEO, secretariat team and association offices.
In 2004, Mr Fahey recognised the widespread growth of self storage in many European countries. He was a driving force behind the founding of FEDESSA and became its inaugural President. This encouraged operators in many European countries to set up their own national associations with the support of FEDESSA.
President Fahey brought together FEDESSA's member national associations to create a “European Standard/Kite Mark” for the industry to protect the image of the industry from cheap imitators of the self storage operators. The standard differentiated true operators from disreputable players.
Mr Fahey was a director of the UK SSA for 14 years (including 3 years as Chairman) and a director of FEDESSA for 10 years (including 3 years as President). Paul joined the board of the Self-Storage Association Asia as a Special Advisor in 2019.