Paul Hughes

Paul leads global digital policy at GE Vernova and supervises the environment, health, and safety function for the GE Vernova Electrification Software business.  He joined GE in 2016, and partners with governments and trade associations to promote and develop policies that enable software to play a key role supporting electrification and grid resilience.

Prior to GE, Paul served for more than 15 years at Adobe Systems, in a variety of government affairs and anti-piracy management roles.  He advised the Adobe CEO and executive team on public policy issues and represented the company to governments on matters including intellectual property rights, privacy, digital trade, market access, and cybersecurity.

Paul began his career with the U.S. Department of State. His overseas experience includes Mumbai and Berlin, as well as extensive work in Washington, D.C.  There, he served as Special Assistant to Secretary of State Warren Christopher, as well as in various positions in the National Security Council and State Department’s Executive Secretariat and Bureau of European Affairs.  He worked on a diverse range of issues from the Middle East Peace Process to NATO enlargement to the deployment of IFOR to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Paul has spoken on technology policy issues in various fora, including WIPO, ICANN, and the U.S. Copyright Office. He is past chair of the BSA Policy Council and Operations Committees, as well as the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) Privacy Committee.

He received his A.B. degree in history from Princeton University, and a master’s degree from the University of Oxford.