paul rainier

associate

cape town

SPECIALISES IN:

Integrity Due Diligence Strategic Intelligence

REGIONAL EXPERTISE:

Sub-Saharan Africa

PRIOR EXPERIENCE:

S-RM, 2021-2025 New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2013-2021 New Zealand Ministry of Social Development, 2012

EDUCATION:

Victoria University of Wellington

Paul is an Associate in Wallbrook’s Cape Town office. He sits in the firm’s business intelligence practice with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

Prior to joining Wallbrook, Paul spent three and a half years as a senior analyst at another global business intelligence firm, where he worked on complex human and open source pre-transactional and source of wealth investigations, as well as market entry and other strategic intelligence assignments. His clients included multinational investment banks, private wealth managers, law firms, corporates and development financial institutions.

A former New Zealand diplomat and foreign policy analyst, Paul served in several headquarter-based and global roles, including as Deputy Head of Mission at the New Zealand Embassy in Ethiopia from 2016 to 2020. He was responsible for leading foreign policy and security analysis of a range of East Africa, Horn, and Great Lakes issues, such as the South Sudan peace process and the Ethiopian political transition.

Paul holds a bachelor of Laws and a bachelor of Arts with Honours in International Relations and Political Science, both from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.