Paul Hughes

Paul Hughes heads global digital public policy at GE.

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 in the United States and abroad. Areas of focus included intellectual property rights, privacy, trade, market access, cybersecurity, and cross-border data flows.

Paul began his career with the U.S. Department of State as a career Foreign Service Officer. 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 State Department’s Executive Secretariat, National Security Council, 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-Herzogovina.

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 Business Software Alliance (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.