Paul MacDonnell was executive director of Global Digital Foundation—a technology-policy think tank which he co-founded—from 2016-2024.

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He is a specialist in public policy that affects the development and use of digital technology. He is currently researching the threat to free speech posed by government regulation, organisations’ speech-codes, and censorship by digital platforms.

Prior to founding Global Digital Foundation, Paul was head of European policy at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) in Brussels. Before that he spent 12 years as director of regulatory policy and EU affairs at Insurance Ireland, the industry association of the national and international Irish insurance industry.

In 2015 he launched an initiative, supported by the OECD, to develop a workplace auto-enrolment pension for all Irish workers. He began his career with Hill & Knowlton’s government affairs division in London where he provided advice to a number of Fortune 500 companies. In 2001 he co-founded an economic policy forum in Dublin, Open Republic, which, as well as hosting events aimed at policy-makers and politicians on such issues as pensions, taxation and the EU, was the Irish publisher of the Economic Freedom of the World Report.

Paul has extensive broadcast and print media experience and has contributed articles to The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, The Critic Magazine, Economic Affairs, EurActiv, EU Observer, and Europe’s World.

He holds a BA in Medieval & Renaissance English Literature and Philosophy from Trinity College Dublin, an MBA from University College Dublin, and a master’s degree in Classics from the University of Exeter.