Paul Misener

Paul Misener is Amazon.com’s Vice President for Global Innovation Policy and Communications.  An Amazon veteran of over 17 years, Paul served as the company’s Vice President for Global Public Policy from February 2000 to May 2016.

Both an engineer and attorney (BS, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Princeton University, 1985; JD, George Mason University, 1993 and Distinguished Achievement Award, 2001), Paul advocates Amazon’s culture of customer-focused innovation; serves as Amazon’s most senior policy spokesperson worldwide; and guides development of Amazon global public policy positions.  He has testified before the US Congress over 30 times and frequently before other policymaking bodies around the world.

Formerly a partner in the law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding, Paul also served as the Senior Legal Advisor to Commissioner Furchtgott-Roth of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  Previously, he was Intel’s Manager of Telecommunications and Computer Technology Policy and, in the mid-1990s, led the computer industry’s Internet Access Coalition, which included Intel, Microsoft, and IBM.

In the late 1980s, after helping to design and evaluate advanced radio communications systems at the Electromagnetic Compatibility Analysis Center (ECAC), Paul was a public policy specialist for the US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and was a US delegate to several conferences of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).  In 2013, he chaired the technical subcommittee of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) advisory committee that recommended allowing airplane passengers to use portable electronics during takeoff and landing.  He is an inventor named in three patents.

Paul serves on the FCC’s Technological Advisory Council; the Board of the Public Affairs Council; the Advisory Board for Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy; and the Board of the Partnership Fund for the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, where he also Chairs the Corporate Advisory Board.  He is a certified meet official for Potomac Valley Swimming (USA Swimming), and serves as a meet referee and starter in both the Virginia High School League (part of the National Federation of State High School Associations) and the Northern Virginia Swimming League.