Paul Washington

Paul Washington has led The Conference Board ESG Center, the premier US-based nonprofit think tank addressing corporate governance, sustainability, and citizenship, since 2019. Before joining The ESG Center, he served for nearly 20 years as an executive at Time Warner Inc., including as Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, as well as Chief of Staff for the company’s Chairman and CEO.

In those roles, he was responsible not only for leading the company’s corporate governance practices, but also for an array of legal areas including antitrust, intellectual property, and regulatory and international law. He also played a key role in developing the company’s sustainability strategy and restructuring its corporate citizenship programs. Prior to Time Warner, Paul practiced law at the firm of Sidley & Austin and served as Vice President and Corporate Secretary of The Dime Savings Bank of New York.

Paul’s career also includes extensive work in public service at the federal, state, and local levels and all three branches of government, including serving as a law clerk for former Supreme Court Associate Justice William Brennan and Associate Justice David Souter, and for Circuit Court Judge David Tatel. Paul also served as the lead staffer on tax matters for former Congressman Stanley Lundine and, later, as his principal speechwriter when Lundine served as New York’s Lieutenant Governor.

A long-time, active Member of The Conference Board, Paul chaired its Advisory Board on Corporate/Investor Engagement from 2013–2014. Paul has also served on over two dozen boards of cultural, civic, and professional nonprofit organizations, including as the former Chairman of the Society for Corporate Governance. He also served as an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School where he taught corporate governance for over a decade and later served as a Resident Fellow. Paul graduated from Yale College and Fordham University School of Law.