Paul J. Hooker '75

Board Chair, Paul J. Hooker Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership

Paul J. Hooker is the retired CEO of SFERRA Fine Linens, a luxury bedding, bath and home decor store based in Edison, New Jersey.  

In 1977, Hooker purchased the New York City-based luxury household linen importer from Albert Sferra, the soul surviving member of the family who started the firm in 1891. He recognized the need to maintain the company's identity and encourage growth within the luxury market. With that in mind, Hooker took SFERRA from a one-room office on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to a 35,000-square-foot distribution facility in Edison, New Jersey, plus a beautiful showroom just off Madison Square Park in New York City. In the process, Hooker grew annual sales from $250,000 when he bought the business in 1977 to over $30 million in 2013 when he sold a majority stake of the company. Today SFERRA presents the most comprehensive range of luxury home textiles for the bed, bath, and table worldwide.

Hooker was the head varsity baseball coach at Red Bank Catholic High School in Red Bank, New Jersey, from 1994-2000, winning the only New Jersey State Baseball Championship in the school’s history in 1997.  In 1990 Paul, along with his wife Margo, founded a not-for-profit sports program for children with disabilities that he named Challenged Youth Sports (CYS). CYS assisted over 150 families with programs in basketball, soccer, Little League softball, golf, flag football and tennis. The program has since been renamed  RallyCap Sports, and has added colleges and universities to its growth plan, with the Bowling Green State University chapter being the first and currently largest chapter.  Currently RallyCap Sports has programs at 18 colleges and universities across the Midwest and Northeast.

Hooker graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. In 2010, he was named a top 100 graduate in the first 100 years of Bowling Green State University and was inducted into the Entrepreneurial Leadership Hall of Fame in 2012.