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Meet The Owner and CEO, Mark Shaver

Mark with Gunnar
Mark, 1 dog, 2

About Mark

OWNER

Greetings! I’m Mark Shaver, owner. Before Buckhead Paws, I had a long corporate career working in executive positions for Coca-Cola, Baskin Robbins, and RJ Reynolds Tobacco for over twenty-five years. I spent fifteen of those years living and working overseas, with assignments in Korea, Pakistan, and Moscow, Russia.

In 2004, I retired and returned to the States, settling in Atlanta. In 2009, the original owner of Buckhead Paws was moving to Marietta, so I agreed to help out by taking care of the few clients she had at the time. However, I had so much fun, and we enjoyed such strong growth, that I bought the company two years later.

Running a small, customer-focused business is a far cry from running country operations for a multi-national corporation, but I feel a genuine “pride of ownership” with Buckhead Paws that I never had in my previous career. We form deep relationships with our clients, both 2-legged and 4-legged, and every day is another opportunity to be of service.

Over the years, I’ve been owned by a variety of pets, including a St. Bernard named Oley, a basset hound named Moe, and Scamp the sheltie. There was also a loud Siamese named Smudge, and at one time, while living in Moscow, we had three dogs, four cats, and a chinchilla. My best buddy,however, was Gigi, a beautiful black and white Norwegian forest cat. Sadly, I had to say good-bye to her in 2018, when she was nineteen years old.

In 2019, I met poet Karen Paul Holmes. If there’s such a thing as love at first sight, this was it, and in October 2020, we were married. My three children, daughter-in-law, and three granddaughters live on the West Coast, and Karen’s daughter lives in Europe.

Greetings! I’m Mark Shaver, owner. Before Buckhead Paws, I had a long corporate career working in executive positions for Coca-Cola, Baskin Robbins, and RJ Reynolds Tobacco for over twenty-five years. I spent fifteen of those years living and working overseas, with assignments in Korea, Pakistan, and Moscow, Russia.

In 2004, I retired and returned to the States, settling in Atlanta. In 2009, the original owner of Buckhead Paws was moving to Marietta, so I agreed to help out by taking care of the few clients she had at the time. However, I had so much fun, and we enjoyed such strong growth, that I bought the company two years later.

Running a small, customer-focused business is a far cry from running country operations for a multi-national corporation, but I feel a genuine “pride of ownership” with Buckhead Paws that I never had in my previous career. We form deep relationships with our clients, both 2-legged and 4-legged, and every day is another opportunity to be of service.

Over the years, I’ve been owned by a variety of pets, including a St. Bernard named Oley, a basset hound named Moe, and Scamp the sheltie. There was also a loud Siamese named Smudge, and at one time, while living in Moscow, we had three dogs, four cats, and a chinchilla. My best buddy,however, was Gigi, a beautiful black and white Norwegian forest cat. Sadly, I had to say good-bye to her in 2018, when she was nineteen years old.

In 2019, I met poet Karen Paul Holmes. If there’s such a thing as love at first sight, this was it, and in October 2020, we were married. My three children, daughter-in-law, and three granddaughters live on the West Coast, and Karen’s daughter lives in Europe.