Paul oversees activities across the Innovation Commission Secretariat and leads engagements with partners. Paul is an agricultural economist whose research focuses on rural poverty and food insecurity, small-scale agriculture, and inclusive and sustainable food systems, among other topics. Paul is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. Before Notre Dame, Paul was the Associate Vice-President of Strategy and Knowledge at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and, prior to that, a Professor of Economics at American University. Paul has also worked at the International Potato Center in Peru, the University of New England in Australia, and the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC. Paul holds a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.