Paul Brierley was raised on a family farm in central California. After earning an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science degree and conducting applied telecommunications research, he returned to production agriculture in Southeast Arizona and then served as Director of Organization at the Arizona Farm Bureau. With a background in agriculture, research, leadership and politics, Paul was chosen to serve as the inaugural Executive Director of the University of Arizona’s Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture, which he has built into a highly effective research organization focused on usable results that impact the desert agriculture industry’s pressing problems.

Paul is a Flinn-Brown Fellow, a Project CENTRL (Center for Rural Leadership) graduate, and has served in leadership positions with many organizations including the Arizona Farm Bureau, Arizona Town Hall, Arizona District Export Council, Aerospace Arizona, Yuma County Chamber of Commerce, and the Greater Yuma Economic Development Corporation.