Paul served 34 years with the British Army during which time he held a number of leadership roles in a variety of capacities and in nearly every continent. He has led on operations in Northern Ireland, the Gulf War, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. His extensive expertise is based on operations, leadership development, recruiting, training and personnel.

In 2015 he was selected to be Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst: as the longest serving head in recent history, he has furthered the reach and reputation of the world’s premier Leadership Academy, including the development of leader selection, a through-life Leadership Development ‘Pipeline’ aimed at next-generation leaders; a programme for international leaders development for officers from up to 80 countries; a Commercial Leadership Development Programme designed to take military leadership into the civilian market.

With Commandant came the role of Director Leadership for the British Army: over the 5 years of his tenure, he has reinvigorated the Army’s study of leadership and leader development including the creation of the first Centre for Army Leadership and the writing of its first leadership doctrine.
In 2018, he was selected to lead the Army’s recruiting and training operation alongside his existing roles as Commandant and Director Leadership. His appointment recognised his ability to relate tactical actions to strategic context and environment.

After his mandate at Sandhurst, Paul re-established the partnership with the civilian partner, Capita, to achieve better delivery versus cost. This resulted in a complete turn round of performance in under 2 years – from 60% of the required recruit inflow in 2018/19 to 100% in 19/20: this is the best recruiting performance in over 10 years.
He is a best-selling author on leadership and life skills, coach, mentor and speaker.