Paul Picton Is Engineering Better Chocolate

What started as a gift for his wife after a business trip blossomed into a brand-new career, and the Maverick Chocolate founder has no regrets.
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Maverick Chocolate Company founder Paul Picton.

Photo by Jeremy Kramer

Second Careers

From: Mechanical Engineer
To: Chocolatier

Paul Picton loves airplanes. It runs in his blood. “My uncle and grandfather rebuilt airplanes, so I caught the aviation bug,” he says. “But, because I wore glasses, I couldn’t be a pilot.”

If he couldn’t fly planes, working on them was the next best thing. Picton went to school for mechanical engineering and entered the field as soon as he earned his diploma. He liked his role and found he was particularly good at presenting technical information to clients.

Soon, Picton was in the air on a weekly basis. Domestic flights turned to overseas flights, and he began traveling to Europe once a month. While away, Picton bought chocolates to bring back to his wife Marlene, who deserved a gift for staying home with their two sons. “Wherever I would go, I would hunt for the best chocolate in the city and bring it home. It became our thing for quite a few years,” Picton says.

With roles at large corporations such as GE, Delta, and Mercedes-Benz, Picton often dealt with office politics, bosses (some good, some bad), and the typical strains of the corporate world. “At some point, you begin to realize maybe this is not the only option,” he says. After 25 years of travels, at 49 years old, Picton left his career in aviation. He wasn’t sure what was next, but figured he would find another senior-level engineering role, or maybe even start his own aviation business—he comes from a line of entrepreneurs. While pondering his next steps, Picton came to a devastating realization: He was running out of European chocolates. “I needed it,” he says.

When he discovered that no one in Cincinnati was making confections on par with the treats he’d brought home from Europe, Picton began toying with making his own at home. He shared his creations with friends and family, who told him that chocolate may be his “career 2.0.” Then came the epiphany. “It was a hard right turn, it seemed out of the blue,” Picton says. But, one year after leaving his job, Maverick Chocolate Co. was born, co-owned by Paul and Marlene.

The opportunity was a full-circle moment for the Pictons, who had little experience as chocolatiers when they made white chocolate roses for their wedding day. While he never foresaw owning a business like Maverick, Picton says that many of the skills he used as an engineer still apply to his work today. “I think of engineers as problem-solvers,” he says. “I had a problem that needed solving— needing more chocolate—so I went out to solve that problem.”

More than 10 years later, Maverick is a family affair for the Pictons—part of the reason he has no regrets about his career pivot. “If I had continued, I would have spent significantly less time with my family. I was traveling 20 days a month, and I didn’t get to see them at all,” Picton says. “Now my wife and our sons Ben and Scott work with me in the business, and we’re much closer as a family. That is a huge win.”

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