Assistant Professor of Management

Department: Management

Paul is an Assistant Professor of Management at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, Austin. He studies the ways that organizations can enable, or constrain, important individual and organizational outcomes like engagement, fulfillment, motivation and performance, and individual development. His work is primarily field-based and quantitative in nature. He uses field experiments, quantitative analyses of archival data, and social network analysis in answering his research questions. He has conducted research across various industries–including food processing; fruit harvesting; auto manufacturing; fast food; and consulting. His research has been published in outlets such as Research in Organizational Behavior, Organization Science, and Personality and Individual Differences, and has been featured in publications such as Forbes, Financial Times, the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal and Fast Company.

Paul received a Doctorate in Business Administration in Management from Harvard Business School. He was formerly with The Morning Star Company, a California based integrated food processing company, where he co-founded the Morning Star Self-Management Institute. He was principally responsible for advancing Morning Star through their unique and innovative organizational system. Morning Star, which has been called, “the world’s most creatively managed company” and was named one of Inc. Magazine’s most audacious companies because of their organizational system, is widely considered one of the world’s leading organizational innovators. His leadership in advancing their philosophy and systems, combined with his drive to better understand human nature and motivation through research and experimentation, were instrumental in enabling Morning Star’s organizational system to scale as Morning Star experienced significant growth. Paul received the Harvard Business Review/McKinsey M-Prize for his work advancing Self-Management. 

 Paul’s passion is developing leaders through teaching. His award-winning teaching, in both MBA programs and professional development settings, is distinguished by his ability to connect academic insight with practical application. Drawing on his extensive professional experience and research expertise, Paul brings a unique perspective to the corporate classroom, enabling him to address the real-world challenges leaders face while equipping them with proven, actionable strategies. He has delivered leadership development programs across diverse industries, including manufacturing, insurance, law enforcement, and transportation. His teaching focuses on helping leaders effectively engage teams, foster cultures of sound decision-making, drive innovation, and manage change. Paul has also written numerous teaching cases on topics such as motivation, culture, performance management, and feedback, offering participants tools they can immediately apply to achieve measurable results.

Paul lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, Shawna and their five children.