Paul 't Hart is professor of public administration at the Utrecht University School of Governance, which he joined in 2001. As of June 2011 he is also associate Dean at the Netherlands School of Government in The Hague, a position he also held between 2002-2005. He has taught and trained thousands of mid-level and top-level public officials in the Netherlands, Australia and beyond. In the mid-nineties, he was seconded to the Dutch Intelligence Service as well as the Public Prosecution Service. In the early 2000’s he has been a member of several government advisory or evaluation committees in Dutch local and national government.

Between 2005 and 2010 his Utrecht appointment was fractional, with his main appointment being as professor of political science at the Australian National University. Within the Australia New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG), he continues to convene the Towards Strategic Leadership program for newly emerging senior public service leaders in Australia/New Zealand and teach the Leading Public Sector Change course within the Executive Master of Public Administration program.

Before joining Utrecht University,  Paul was at Leiden University's Department of Public Administration from 1987-2004, and has held visiting positions at the University of Canberra (1990), Nuffield College Oxford (1991), and the Stockholm Centre of Organizational Research (SCORE) of Stockholm University (1995/6). Between 2001-2005 he was adjunct professor of public management at the Swedish Defence College in Stockholm.

His research interests include: public leadership (political, bureaucratic, societal); elite behaviour and group dynamics in government; policy evaluation and policy change; political and bureaucratic responses to 'crises'; the organisation of public and organisational memory; relations between political and bureaucratic officials within government; and the design and practice of accountability in public organisations.

His professional passion is teaching, training and facilitating the learning processes people interested in the theory and practice of managing the public's business, ranging from first-year undergraduates to department and agency heads, and from NGO advocacy groups to the judiciary.

Paul is currently president of the Dutch Society for Public Administration (2013-2017) and a member of the Commission for the Evaluation of the 2012 Police Law, which will investigate the early years of the newly formed Dutch national police force (2013-2017).

He was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in 2014. In 2016, he was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (>2M €) to build a team investigating the preconditions for enduringly successful public organizations, policies ann networks.  

Among Paul’s published works are:

• Observing Government Elites: Up Close and Personal(co-edited with Rod Rhodes and Mirko Noordegraaf, Palgrave, 2007);
• Governing After Crisis: The Politics of Investigation, Accountability and Learning(co-edited with Arjen Boin and Allan McConnell, Cambridge University Press, 2008);
• Public Leadership: Perspectives and Practices(co-edited with John Uhr, ANU E Press 2008);
• Dispersed Democratic Leadership(co-edited with John Kane and Haig Patapan, Oxford UP 2009);
• Framing the Global Meltdown: Crisis Rhetoric and the Politics of Recessions(co-edited with Karen Tindall, ANU E Press 2009);
• The Real World of EU Accountability(co-edited with Mark Bovens and Deirdre Curtin, Oxford University Press 2010;
• How Power Changes Hands: Transition and Succession in Government (co-edited with John Uhr, Palgrave 2011).
• Prime Ministerial Leadership: Power, Parties and Performance(co-edited with James Walter and Paul Strangio, Oxford University Press 2013);
• Oxford Handbook of Political Leadership (co-edited with Rod Rhodes, Oxford University Press 2014)
• Understanding Public Leadership (Palgrave, 2014)
• Settling the Office: The Australian Prime Ministership from Federation to Reconstruction (with Paul Strangio and James Walter, The Miegunyah Press, of Melbourne University Press 2016). 
• The Politics of Crisis Management: Public Leadership Under Pressure (with Arjen Boin, Eric Stern and Bengt Sundelius) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2016, 2nd rev ed)
• Routledge Companion to Leadership (co-edited with John Storey et al., London: Routledge 2017)
• The Leadership Capital Index: A New Perspective on Political Leadership (co-edited with Mark Bennister and Benjamin Worthy, Oxford: Oxford Uniersity Press 2017)
• Pivot of Power: Australian Prime Ministers and Political Leadership (with Paul Strangio and James Walter, The Miegunyah Press, of Melbourne University Press 2017)

In addition, he has written or edited eighteen books in Dutch, contributed numerous book chapters to edited collections and handbooks, and has published widely in academic journals across a range of social science disciplines. He has been co-editor of Political Psychology and is on the editorial board of several journals. He was the inaugural editor of the Palgrave series on Public Management and Leadership. 

He received the 1988 Blozo Award from the government of Flanders, Belgium for his book on the Heysel Stadium soccer disaster; the 1990 GA van Poelje Award from the Dutch Society of Public Administration for his dissertation on Groupthink; and the 1997 Erikson Award for Early Career Achievement from the International Society for Political Psychology for outstanding contributions to the field. He was co-recipient of the 2007 Herbert A Simon Award for the Best Book in Public Administration from the American Political Science Association for his book The Politics of Crisis Management: Public Leadership Under Pressure (Cambridge UP, 2005, co-author), and co-recipient of the 2011 Sam Richardson Award of the Institute for Public Administration Australia for best article in the Australian Journal of Public Administration.

• Lid Commissie Evaluatie Politiewet 2012 (looptijd: 2013-eind 2017)
• Voorzitter Vereniging voor Bestuurskunde (2012-eind 2017)
• Co-decaan Nederlandse School voor Openbaar Bestuur
• Gastdocent Australia New Zealand School of Government
• Lid Raad van advies, The Curious Network BV (2015-...)
• Lid jury Overheidsorganisatie van het Jaar (2013-...)
• Voorzitter Bestuur Stichting Cargo-in-Context, kunstprojecten (2016-...)
• Co-editor, Political Psychology (2010-15)
• Redacteur boekenreeks 'Public Management and Leadership', Palgrave MacMillan, 2010-2016
• Lid editorial advisory board van Public Administration, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, Cooperation and Conflict, Australian Journal of Political Science, Canadian Public Administration, European Political Science Review, Palgrave Series Foundations of government and Public Administration