Paul R. O’Neill (C’86, MPP’96), a Philadelphia native, majored in government at Georgetown. As a student, he served as a White House intern before starting a full-time career in the White House Presidential Advance Office under President Ronald Reagan.

After earning a Master’s in Public Policy at Georgetown, O’Neill transitioned to the private sector, working at The Advisory Board Company and later as a managing director of the Corporate Executive Board (CEB). He was part of the leadership team that took CEB through an IPO and years of extraordinary growth. After his tenure at CEB, he became a managing director on the publishing team of The Atlantic magazine.

In 2009, O’Neill returned to Georgetown as senior advisor to the president, where he played a pivotal role in securing the university’s then-largest-ever philanthropic gift to establish the McCourt School of Public Policy in 2013. As COO of the Office of Advancement, O’Neill led operations of the “For Generations to Come” campaign, which raised $1.7 billion.

O’Neill is co-author of two editions of Georgetown University (Arcadia Press), a collection of historical documents and photographs from the university’s first 200 years. He chairs the Advisory Board of the Carroll Forum, interviews for the Alumni Admissions Program, serves on the external advisory committee of the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union, and was a GSP mentor.

In 2021, O’Neill was appointed to the US-UK Fulbright Commission, where he chairs the fundraising committee.