Paul H. Timmers is at the European Commission Information Society Directorate-General, Head of Sector for electronic commerce in the European Union's research and technology development and business pilot programme. He has also been Secretary to the G8 Global Marketplace for SMEs, a global collaboration to promote electronic commerce for small and medium-sized enterprises. Before joining the European Commission, Paul Timmers was manager of a software development and product management department in a large multinational computer and telecommunications firm. Dr Timmers holds a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands and an MBA from Warwick Business School in the United Kingdom.