Paul Wilson

Paul Chairs the Advisory Board for Smart Cities World, read by over 1.6m people worldwide, Smart Cities World provides daily news coverage and weekly features about the fast-changing world of urban innovation. Paul is the Founder of GroundedThinking.net. He is also Senior Advisor at Open Agile Smart Cities with 170 city members and an honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol’s Smart Internet Lab. Most recently Paul was Chief Business Officer, Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport, and place leadership. Paul co-hosts the Urban Exchange podcast with the Resilient Cities Network, the Bentley Horizons podcast about the future of infrastructure, and The Living Network podcast with the Smart Internet Lab at the University of Bristol about the future of digital infrastructure. He combines an in-depth understanding of digital technology with a strong understanding of public policy processes, and a concern for nature. Paul draws on 30 years’ international leadership experience in technology and cities. Earlier in his career he was Chief Marketing Officer of $3Bn fintech company SunGard Financial Systems. He then led the development of the first economic growth strategy for the Bristol and Bath City Region as Chief Executive of the West of England LEP, winning £260m of investment from Government. After this he founded the pioneering Smart City Project ‘Bristol Is Open’, winning numerous international Smart City awards, and became a founder and Board member of the UK Government’s UK5G. Paul became telecoms industry association TM Forum’s Smart City International Advisor and then its Chief Marketing Officer, creating the ‘City as a Platform Manifesto’, attracting 300+ signatories from Governments, Companies and Cities worldwide. Paul has lived in London, Hong Kong and Geneva, and worked extensively in America. Today he lives with his family in Bristol, England.