Pat Christen

Biography

Pat Christen is a managing director of The Omidyar Group, serving as a senior advisor
to philanthropists Pierre and Pam Omidyar. Pat brings curiosity, a sense of humor and
a commitment to high accountability to her role, which focuses on cultivating
environments of learning, innovation and impact across all Omidyar Group
organizations and initiatives.
Prior to joining The Omidyar Group, Pat served as President and CEO of HopeLab, a
nonprofit harnessing the power and appeal of technology to improve human health
and wellbeing. Under Pat’s leadership for more than a decade, HopeLab’s work
centered on the development of specially designed technology to drive positive health
behavior among youth. HopeLab is currently focused on the research and
development of new social technologies to promote human resilience.
Prior to HopeLab, Pat was President and Executive Director of the San Francisco
AIDS Foundation for 15 years, where she worked with her counterparts nationally to
craft the federal Ryan White C.A.R.E. Act. This precedentsetting legislation now generates more than $2 billion annually in funding for AIDS care in the United States.
Pat also served as President of the Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, establishing AIDS clinics and playing an active role in AIDSplanning efforts globally. As president of Pangaea, she was responsible for the construction of the Infectious Diseases Institute at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, a stateoftheart AIDS clinic, research, and training center which opened its doors in August of 2004.
Pat has written, studied, and lectured on social and health issues both in the U.S. and
abroad. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, East Africa from 1982–1985. She
was a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and is now a member of the
Exiles Chapter because she is too old to be considered a “young” president any
longer! She is a graduate of Stanford University, where she studied biology and
political science.