Paul is the President & CEO of Fortress 17 LLC (“Fortress17”).  Fortress17 is a niche management and consulting firm specializing in successfully partnering with and supporting start-ups, and small, medium, and large businesses.  Fortress17 uses its own proprietary structured process (RAPID$^TM) to identify opportunities, connect at the highest levels in Government, industry and academia, and to develop and implement the strategic plan of attack to garner investment dollars, contracts and grants for clients.

Prior to starting Fortress 17 LLC, Paul spent nearly 33 years as a civilian within the US Department of the Army, culminating his service in December 2011 as both the Acting Executive Director of Product Development, and the Director of the National Automotive Center for the US Army Tank-Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC). 

Paul’s Government background covered the full spectrum of acquisition, technology, and logistics.  During the last fifteen years of his Government tenure, Paul spearheaded several initiatives to include the 21^st Century Truck Initiative, a ten-year, $2.5 billion-dollar National Level Initiative announced by the Vice President in April 2000; the Future Tactical Truck System Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (FTTS ACTD), the pre-cursor Program to the Army and Marine Corps’ Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) Program; the Advanced Automotive Battery Initiative, a key impetus for over $2B in US Government stimulus funding through the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009 for advanced battery manufacturing in the United States; the Advanced Vehicle & Power Initiative, a key impetus for the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Program; and the Hybrid Truck Users Forum (HTUF), which just recently celebrated its 20^th anniversary.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and a Master of Science degree in Operations Research from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.