Paul was born in south-east England in 1942 and was educated principally as a mathematician. After graduating from the University of Nottingham, he worked with IBM (UK) in London, where he worked in a sales office in both technical and managerial roles. In the late seventies, when he was engaged in marketing management information systems, Life led him to see that the information society that was just then dawning was incompatible with the principles of the economic system in which he was working. His whole life since then has been dedicated to laying down the foundations of a life-enhancing, ecologically sustainable economy. He was unemployed for seven years between 1980 and 1990, working only when he was able to do so, including a nine-month stint as a computer consultant in Kuwait in 1982. He rejoined IBM at its Nordic Software Development Laboratory as a technical writer and human interface designer. He took early retirement from IBM in 1997, which has given him the opportunity to bring his pioneering work out to the world at large.