JONATHAN L. PATON

Jonathan Paton was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. He grew up on Tucson’s east side in what is now Legislative District 30. He graduated from Sabino High School in 1989.

During his senior year in high school he dreamed of seeing the world. He worked at Marie Callender’s restaurant as a busboy and saved up the funds to go to Germany as a Rotary exchange student. His year abroad in 1990 was an important time in Germany’s history. He watched the Berlin Wall fall and took with him the images of people experiencing freedom for the first time.

He returned home and began his studies at the University of Arizona. In the coming years he would spend more years overseas studying in Almaty, Kazakhstan with the Sister Cities Program, Ludwig-Maximillians-Universitaet in Munich as a Rotary Foundation Scholar and in Moscow through a program administered by the University of Arizona. One of his most important experiences, however, occurred in Arizona when he interned with the Arizona State Senate in 1995.

Jonathan Paton graduated from the University of Arizona summa cum laude and with honors in German and Russian in 1996. He continued on to the graduate program in German at the University of Arizona.

In 1999 Jonathan enlisted in the United States Army Reserve. He served in the 5-104th Military Intelligence Battalion at Ft. Huachuca. He was named “Soldier of the Year” for his battalion, brigade and eventually for the entire 104th Division in 2000. After becoming instructor qualified and being promoted to sergeant, he received his commission as a second lieutenant.

In 2005 after his first year in office, he was called up for active duty for six months in a new Army program called the Basic Officer Leadership Course, which combined infantry training at Ft. Benning, GA with military intelligence training at Ft. Huachuca. He graduated as class leader of the Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course in January 2006. He continues to serve as a 1st lieutenant and a qualified 35-Delta all-source intelligence officer.

In 2001 Jonathan began a political consulting firm in Tucson called Paton & Associates. He has worked with numerous clients in state and local races as well as on initiative campaigns.

After his promotion to First Lieutenant, Paton volunteered for active duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from September of 2006 until February 2007. Based at Camp Slayer in Baghdad, he served as operations officer for the Joint Intelligence Operational Capability - Iraq under Multinational Forces Iraq. As operations officer he oversaw logistics of intelligence equipment fieldings, training and maintenance throughout the CENTCOM Theater of Operations. His duties took him to many different cities and forward operating bases in Iraq including Al Asad, Bukka, Fallujah, Mosul, Tikrit, Baghdad and Balad. He conducted assessments of intelligence operations and escorted top secret intelligence equipment through Iraq. His work was essential in keeping valuable intelligence assets operational for targeting insurgents throughout theater. In February of 2009 Paton was promoted to Captain.

Besides politics and the military, Jonathan is still interested in languages. His hobbies include reading, brewing beer (we are not sure if anyone has ever survived a taste-testing or not), working-out and writing.

EDUCATION

2006   Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course, Ft. Huachuca, Arizona
2000   Total Army Instructor Training (TAITC), Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin
1996   B.A.German, University of Arizona, Summa Cum Laude, Honors
1993   Rotary Foundation Scholar, Ludwig-Maximillians Universitaet Muenchen
1993   Certificate for Advanced German Language Exam (Z.O.P.), Passed with distinction
1993   Certificate for advanced language study, Sprachinstitut Tuebingen
1992   Sister Cities Exchange Scholar, Almaty Pedagogical Language Institute of Foreign Languages
1989   Rotary Youth Exchangee, Corvinianum Gymnasium, Northeim, Germany
1989   Graduate, Sabino High School

AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS

2009  Promoted to Captain in the United States Army Reserve
2002  Commissioned as Second Lieutenant, United States Army Reserve
2002  Member Solid Waste Advisory Board
2000  104th Division Soldier of the Year, United States Army Reserve
2000  3rd Brigade Soldier of the Year, United States Army Reserve
2000  5-104th MI Battalion Soldier of the Year, United States Army Reserve
2000  U.S. Army Commendation Medal
2000  U.S. Army Achievement Medal

EMPLOYMENT

2001-present   President of Paton & Associates Consulting
2001-present   Vice President, P. Drachman Commercial, Inc.
2000-present   President, Paton & Associates
1998-2000      Tucson Unified School District
1998-2000      United States Army Reserve German Instructor, German G.A.T., University of Arizona
1994               Arizona State Senate Intern
1994               Intern for Governor Fife Symington