Paul Hofheinz

Paul Hofheinz is president of the Lisbon Council, an independent, non-partisan think tank based in Brussels, Belgium, which he co-founded in 2003. He also serves as executive director.

After a distinguished career in journalism, Mr. Hofheinz co-founded the Lisbon Council, where he researches, supervises research and hosts events on topics ranging from innovation, knowledge-economy, human capital and financial-market reform to economic development and European politics. He frequently appears on CNBC, Bloomberg and BBC, and has written for or been quoted in more than four dozen leading newspapers and academic journals. Mr. Hofheinz also oversees daily management of the Lisbon Council, where he is in charge of the organisation’s growth and expansion. In 2011, he served as advisor to the Polish government, providing strategic input into the country’s first-ever European Union Presidency in the second half of 2011.

Before leaving journalism, Mr. Hofheinz worked as a writer and editor at The Wall Street Journal, covering such diverse topics as European integration, financial-market regulation, emerging markets and Russian politics. In 1998-1999, he was managing editor of Central European Economic Review, published by The Wall Street Journal Europe. Prior to that, Mr. Hofheinz served as associate editor of Fortune, America’s leading business magazine, including stints as bureau chief in Bonn and Moscow. He began his journalism career in London as a reporter for Time magazine.

Mr. Hofheinz holds a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Russian politics from London School of Economics and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in history from Yale, where he received the prestigious John Addison Porter and Dean Henry P. Wright prizes upon graduation. In 1992, he received the Olive Branch Award from New York University’s Center for War, Peace and Media Studies for a three-part series of articles in Fortune on the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. He speaks fluent English, French and Russian.