Paula Kirby is Managing Director of Plaxall, an​ innovator in the thermoforming industry and a third-generation family business which owns and manages over a million square feet of property in Long Island City. She currently helps lead efforts to redevelop the family’s waterfront property along the Anable Basin.  

Prior to joining Plaxall in 2014, Paula worked in Europe for over 20 years, notably as Head of Marketing for Prada based in Milan, and as Deputy Director of Prada UK and Head of Licensing for Alfred Dunhill while in London. 

A Queens native who grew up in Forest Hills, Paula serves on the Board of Trustees of the Queens Museum as Vice Chair, the Board of Trustees of the Queens Public Library Foundation, and the Board of Advisors of Mount Sinai Queens. She is an active member of the LIC Partnership where she is on a number of committees, including Life Sciences and Retail. Paula was co-chair of the successful LIC Business Improvement District (BID) expansion that was approved in 2017 and is now a board member of the LIC BID.

Paula earned an M.A. in Italian Language and Literature from Middlebury College and an M.B.A. from INSEAD, the international business school, where she was the​Cartier Scholarship recipient. She also holds a B.A. in Art History from Duke University.

She lives in Larchmont with her husband, Peter McWhinnie, and their three daughters.