Patrick Donohue

Patrick Donohue is the founder of BRINQ and a field director for the BoP Protocol, part of a nascent group of business professionals working at the grassroots intersection of innovation, poverty, and business. Patrick's efforts to innovate business models that “partner with poverty” has taken him deep into low-income communities in India, Kenya, and Brazil, and he has worked side-by-side with BoP communities and companies to co-create new businesses. In 2004 Patrick founded BRINQ, an initiative that promotes playful innovation in the BoP of Brazil, and he has acted as a development advisor for Rio de Janeiro-based Catalytic Communities, an award-winning organization that links together grassroots innovators from communities throughout the world. Patrick’s most recent project, bop101 (bop101.com), is a collaboration with COB01 design visionary Matthias Brendler that focuses on designing and deploying pioneering tools & infrastructure to support professionals getting started in the BoP.

 

A self-described refugee from the rapid-to-riches dot-com culture, Patrick has managed and developed innovative technology programs for Rockwell International, Apple Computer, and NASA as well as a number of technology start-ups. At Rockwell, Patrick led a team that was awarded the 1999 Rockwell International Team of the Year Award, and his work for NASA was nominated in 2002 for a Turning Goals into Reality Award. Through his work with the BoP Protocol, Patrick has guided and advised the BoP efforts of multinational companies such as SC Johnson, Solae, and Natura, and he is a co-author of the Protocol’s upcoming version 2.0.

 

Patrick earned a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A business strategist, entrepreneur, technologist, professional houseguest and writer, Patrick lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.