Paolo Bruni is a Member of the International Advisory Board of the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI). He was a member of the Italian Foreign Service from 1967 to 2006, having held various diplomatic positions across the world. Paolo served at the Consulate General of Italy in Hong Kong between 1962 and 1969, at the time of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Hong Kong and China.

He held several positions in multilateral organizations, such as Italian deputy representative at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, delegate in Belgrade at the First Conference for the Review of the Helsinki Agreement, Italy's representative to the UN in New York in the areas of Economics and Development Cooperation, among others.

He served as Consul General in Rio de Janeiro between 1983 and 1987, Ambassador of Italy to Venezuela between 1990 and 1993, and Ambassador to China from 1998 to 2003. In 2006, he was elected Secretary-General of the international organization Italo-Latinoamericana (IILA), which works on Italy-Latin America relations.