Paul Warwick Thompson FRSA (born 9 August 1959) is the current Chair of the British Council.^[1] He was rector of the Royal College of Art from 2009 to 2014.^[2]

Thompson was educated at Bryanston School, the University of Bristol (BA) and the University of East Anglia (MA, PhD).^[3]

Thompson worked as a scriptwriter and researcher for the Design Council 1987–88. He then joined the Design Museum as curator of contemporary design and from 1993 to 2001 was its director.^[3]

During 2001–09, Thompson was director of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City, USA. In 2009, he took up his current post at the Royal College of Art.^[2] He is a trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and on the board of visitors of the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford. He is a member of the Wellcome Collection Programme Advisory Committee at the Wellcome Trust, London. He is an adjunct professor at Imperial College's Institute for Global Health Innovation. He co-directs the Helix Centre with Professor Lord Ara Darzi.^{[citation needed]} The Helix Centre is a design research centre based in St Mary's Hospital, London.^{[citation needed]}