Paul is focused on building the next great cleantech companies that will help address America's energy and environmental challenges. Co-founder of Highland, Paul has over twenty-five years of experience in venture capital and has served as a director of many public and private companies. He currently serves on the boards of 2tor, Avidyne, Bit9, BlueTarp Financial, Imprivata, PerkStreet Financial, Predictive Biosciences, StreamBase Systems, Vertica Systems and Village Ventures.
Paul also serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association and has been recognized by the prestigious Forbes Midas List as one of the top venture capitalists in the industry. He is the 2008 recipient of the Mass Technology Leadership Council Commonwealth Award, and is a member of the MIT Energy Innovation Project Advisory Board.
Background
Paul is a former director of Amp Resources (acquired by Enel), Avid Technology (Nasdaq: AVID), CheckFree (Nasdaq: CKFR), Chipcom, HighGround Systems, (acquired by Sun Microsystems), Mainspring (acquired by IBM), Relicore (acquired by Symantec), SCH (acquired by Legato Systems), SQA (acquired by Rational Corporation), Sybase (Nasdaq: SYBS), VistaPrint (Nasdaq: VPRT) and WebLine Communications (acquired by Cisco Systems).
Before co-founding Highland, Paul was a general partner at Charles River Ventures where he concentrated on software investments. Prior to entering venture capital, he held operating positions for six years in high-growth technology companies. At Novacor Corporation he worked on the development an implantable artificial heart. Later, Paul was responsible for the development of a complex visual field examination instrument at Synemed Corporation where he also headed the company's mechanical engineering and software development. Earlier in his career, Paul was the Energy Analyst at Brown University.
Education
Princeton University, B.S.E., Aerospace and Mechanical Sciences
Stanford University, M.S., Mechanical Engineering
Harvard Business School, M.B.A. with Distinction
Interests
Paul is an avid pilot, ocean sailor, and skier, and an undistinguished hockey player. He holds a Commercial Pilot license and flies several experimental aircraft, a Legend Club and a Maule. He has flown cover for Operation Migration, and one of the aircraft he built is currently being used in alligator farming in the Louisiana bayou. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Overseers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the Boston Museum of Science, and The New England Aquarium. He also serves on the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Advisory Committee at Princeton and is a Co-Chair of the Class of '75 Annual Giving Campaign. Paul is a past board chair of the Massachusetts Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, and served as a Board Chair of the Buckingham Browne & Nichols School. Paul holds both a Swiss and a U.S. passport and is fluent in household Swiss-German.
