Paul Decker

Paul Decker is a nationally recognized expert in policy research, data analytics, education, and labor policy. For three decades, he has worked to improve public well-being through the use of evidence to improve programs and policy.

As president and CEO of Mathematica, Decker sets the company’s vision and strategy, oversees its operation and management, and shapes its values and standards. During his tenure as CEO, Decker has expanded and diversified the company’s operations and maintained its commitment to rigor and objectivity in new and evolving areas of research and analysis. Under his leadership, the company has achieved several notable accomplishments:

• Grown to include 12 locations nationwide, with more than 1,500 employees, more than $300 million in annual revenue, and $1 billion in work backlog.
• Infused a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) throughout its work and workplace by enhancing practices to support workforce DEI within the organization, leading efforts to promote DEI within the field, and promoting understanding and application of research methods that reflect and advance cultural competence, equity, and justice.
• Embedded digital transformation throughout the organization, integrating data science and analytics, including sophisticated data management, data mining, predictive modeling, and data visualization expertise to support effective policy and program decisions.
• Extended its in-country engagement throughout Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and Latin America and acquired EDI Group, with offices in the UK, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya, expanding the organization’s international offerings to include data collection.
• Diversified its work to study policy issues related to climate change, child welfare, housing, veterans’ affairs, health care comparative effectiveness in the United States, and alleviation of poverty in low- and middle-income countries.
• Been named the 2021 ESOP Association New York/New Jersey Chapter of the year.

Decker is a member of CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion. He is associate editor for the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management and a past president of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, for which he also co-chaired the organization’s strategic planning committee and served on the policy council. Decker serves as a trustee for the Committee for Economic Development and a co-chair of the organization’s Committee on Workforce Issues. Decker writes and speaks regularly on trends in the policy research field and has testified before Congress, served as an expert adviser to both the U.S. and Canadian governments, and published widely in peer-reviewed journals.

Decker holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Johns Hopkins University and serves as chair of development on the board of advisers of the Thomas Jefferson Public Policy Program at the College of William and Mary, his undergraduate alma mater.