PAN wishes Paula, the co-founder of stock footage agency FootageBank, all the best on her retirement this month.
The team at her agency shared the graphic above and these words about their boss:
‘Today we celebrate the incredible Paula Lumbard as she retires after an astonishing 37 years in the stock footage industry, known to all as the ‘Queen of Stock Footage’ -a title lovingly bestowed upon her by her employees- Paula has been a trailblazer, co-founding FootageBank and serving as a cornerstone of our industry with unparalleled dedication and expertise.
From her role as Co-Founder to her passion for Supplier Relations, Paula’s impact on the stock footage world-and all of us lucky enough to have worked with her-has been a truly inspiring!
Paula, thank you for your leadership, creativity and the legacy you’ve built. Please join us in wishing her endless joy and relaxation in the exciting new chapter. You’ve earned it Queen!.’
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PAN reader, UK based documentary researcher, Steve Bergson who worked for many years with Paula sent us this note :
‘Paula has always been very happy to contribute to interviews or articles about the stock footage business, which was where I got to know her.’
‘I was intrigued but not surprised when she let me know she’d had a track coach in her younger days and had raced at the US National Women’s Track championships. Her sense of direction and passionate motivation to succeed was always very evident. She comes from a family of business and artistic high achievers, her brother even dancing on Broadway. In developing FootageBank Paula applied this spirit of adventure, managing to make the agency a competitor with the big operators while maintaining the sense of a boutique. That’s the sweet spot for archive suppliers both for their business models and their customers, but it’s one very rarely achieved.’
‘Paula seems to manage not just to walk this tightrope but at the same time to look after her employees and make the enterprise a good place to work. The speed of response time to enquiries from customers and friendly attitude to the often impossible requests, has always been a hallmark of FootageBank. Much of this has been down to Paula’s leadership. Even in these days of online AI-powered interactions, aggregated content portals and increasingly impersonal transactions, this sense of the value of real stuff is still something to be celebrated. I’m sure Paula wouldn’t mind my quoting something I suspect is very characteristic: many years ago, I complimented her on this highly personal approach to business; her response of course, was: “I bet you say that to all the girls”. In the fast evolving footage market, her presence will be much missed.’
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