Paul is a bi-vocational academic working concurrently in both academia and the for-profit/third sectors. Having studied Sinology (Chinese Studies) in Oxford and Peking University he started a consultancy company advising UK businesses on working with China before completing further postgraduate training at the University of Bath in Interpreting and Translation. He joined the university in 2014 as a Teaching Fellow in Applied Translation and became Programme Director in 2019, and was awarded a University Enterprise Fellowship in 2023 having chaired a large housing charity and contributed to a number of civic initiatives related to housing in Bristol. He is focused on the interface between academia and business/civic society and a reimagining of the identity and academic institutions with an embedded culture of enterprise and innovation. Since February 2021, he has worked closely with the think tank Oxford House Research as a geo-political anaylst and cross-cultural consultant, contributing to a diverse range of projects including the deployment of digital tools for protecting at-threat and displaced groups in conflict zones such as Myanmar, and as a researcher into the impact of Chinese foreign policy through the Belt and Road initiative for the European institutions. He is a director and co-founder of Katena Consulting Ltd which works to bring strategic change and growth management in the green energy sector, with a focus on bringing innovative technological and systems-level solutions to scale. He also has a personal interest in the impact of religious and spiritual dimensions on economics and politics, and in bringing reconciliation to areas of conflict.