Prior to founding Sutter Hill Ventures, Paul was with Beckman Instruments and Honeywell, holding various technical marketing and sales positions. During his 40 plus years in venture capital – all with Sutter Hill – he served on over 27 boards and led Sutter Hill investments in Tellabs, Xidex, Linear Technology and AmeriGroup, among many others.

Paul was a Founding Director of the National Venture Capital Association, past President and Director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists, 12 years as an Overseer Board member of the Hoover Institution at Stanford, a 22-year Board member of the T. Rowe Price Mutual Fund Complex in Baltimore, Maryland, a former Board member of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and presently a member of their Investment Committee, and for fourteen years a Trustee of Princeton University, where he served as Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee and Clerk of the Board. He is also former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Menlo School and College in Atherton, California.

Paul is the recipient of the National Venture Capital Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, the U.S. Naval Supply Corps Distinguished Alumnus Award, and accepted the Dow Jones Equity Hall of Fame Award given to Sutter Hill as the Outstanding Venture Capital Firm for 2006. He has also been recognized in numerous venture capital articles and books including, Done Deals: Venture Capitalists Tell Their Stories by Udayan Gupta, and
in a recent oral history of the venture capital industry.

Paul is a graduate of Princeton University , where he received a BSE degree in 1955 and in 1959 received an MBA degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is an Emeritus Director of the Stanford University DAPER Investment Fund and former member of the Advisory Council of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.