Paul Metivier has been promoted to President of Florida-based Impact RTO Holdings dba Rent-A-Center, as of the beginning of the year. Metivier was promoted from Vice President of Operations at Impact RTO, which currently has 77 locations across 8 states.
Metivier has been in rent-to-own since 2001, when he joined Rent-A-Center as a customer account representative.
“I had graduated from the University of South Florida, and was working as a commercial real-estate appraiser and analyst for PricewaterhouseCoopers,” Metivier says. “I was bored and seriously unmotivated. At a family gathering, my brother-in-law Corey Casey – who was a RAC Store Manager – told me I’d be a natural in rent-to-own, make more money, and have way more fun. Well, in 2001, the accounting world was shaken up by the Enron scandal, and PwC began massive layoffs. I lost my job, and spent the next few months interviewing for positions at several smaller accounting firms, but I never forgot what Corey had said.”
Metivier finally applied at Rent-A-Center, and the rest is, as they say, history. He moved up in the company quickly, becoming a District Manager before joining Impact RTO ten years ago.
“I just thrived in the RTO environment,” he says. “There are constant challenges, fun characters, and career advancement. No one cared who my parents were, what they did, or where I went to school. There were no politics, only performance.”
Metivier believes deeply in the purpose of rent-to-own, as an industry that says ‘yes’ to customers who are mostly told ‘no.’
“RTO puts you in front of everyone,” says Metivier. “You encounter people of every race, background, and status, and you learn quickly that the only thing that matters is how you treat and respect each other. I’d rather spend a month with my customers than five minutes with much of this stuck-up, judgmental world.”
Along the way, Metivier has become a remarkable advocate for the RTO industry at both the state and federal levels. He’s consistently attended the APRO Legislative Conference, and has served as a member of the Florida Rental Dealers Association (FRDA) Board of Directors for the past 17 years, including four years as President. Last year, Metivier and FRDA were recognized with APRO’s Ed Winn Legislative Advocacy Award for putting together the first FRDA State Legislative Day since 2020.
Among his RTO mentors and guides, Metivier credits Anthony Blasquez, Corey Casey, Mark Harris, Shirin Kanji, Kirk Kaye, Sachin Rama, and Dave Sylvestry. But above all, Metivier says his family has had the biggest influence on his career.
“My mother and father set excellent examples for hard work, my sister Gina helped me through many difficult nights, and my twin boys Anthony and Paul – when they were born prematurely and had to struggle to live – put everything into perspective for me,” says Metivier. “But my wife Luisa has been the secret weapon to my career. She has helped me through every difficult coworker situation and helped advance my career more than anyone else.”
