Senior Policy Fellow
Mihai Patru
Mihai Patru is an Entrepreneur in Residence on Social Entrepreneurship at the Office of Technology Partnerships, University of California in Riverside. Prior, he was a Senior Fellow at the School of Public Policy, University of California in Riverside, where he designed and launched the first social entrepreneurship pre-accelerator at the University, SEED Lab.
He serves as Executive Director of Caravanserai Project, a hybrid mission-driven venture he co-founded in 2016 which focuses on identifying, mobilizing and supporting change makers along their journeys. He founded Mozaïque, a social business working with artisans around the world to develop mechanisms meant to increase their financial predictability. He was involved in various capacities with numerous social impact ventures as part of initiatives like Echoing Green, European Social Innovation Challenge and Mentor Capital Networks.
He started his professional career as a diplomat with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania serving in different capacities including advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Deputy Minister for Global Affairs. In 2015, he joined the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins University, as Senior Fellow, and was the recipient of the U.S. State Department Transatlantic Diplomatic Fellowship (2013/2014 cohort). He completed his graduate work at Central European University in Budapest (MA '10) and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC (MIPP '17).
What do you feel is an important factor contributing to your accomplishments?
In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and all the changes we have experienced over the last 10-11 months, we had plenty of time to revisit our own accomplishments and understand what was and is important. My conclusion was that my professional and personal growth has been the consequence of my constant exposure to different experiences, cultures and people. Living on various continents and fully immersing in other cultures are my proudest accomplishments because they shaped my work and my own self. Being able to have a variety of points of reference has changed the perspectives I have on things. I was fortunate to travel extensively since high school to grad school, traveling was part of my job description during my time at the Romanian foreign service and even now, as my career and interests shifted towards social impact and entrepreneurship, traveling is a dominant part of it.
Which research would you be interested in collaborating with students on?
My work with mission-driven entrepreneurs requires extensive research into understanding the problems they are aiming to solve, their competitors, or the impact they are aiming to deliver. Any social impact focused initiative includes an ongoing research part. So, if there are students who are passionate about a particular social issue and want to explore potential solutions—either through starting their own venture or simply joining and supporting one the program’s entrepreneurs—I invite them to reach out to us.
What advice do you have for public policy students?
As a graduate of a public policy program myself at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, I can’t think of a better environment not only to better grasp how the world around us works but also to identify the tools that suit us best to make the world better for everyone. At the end of the day, all of us can and should make a positive contribution, but it takes time and effort to figure out what are, and how best to use, the tools we are equipped with as individuals to make long-term and appreciable impacts. Students should be open-minded and should expose themselves to innovative and diverse experiences to build their understanding of the world around them. But at the same time, they should also know when to stop and fully dedicate themselves to the one cause they are passionate about. Showing long-term commitment will never be overrated.
What do you think policy students will be faced with as they graduate in this time of COVID-19?
I think they will (have to) join the extended effort of finding solutions and, yes, fix the many unhealthy and destructive behaviors that have been revealed during the Covid-19 pandemic that negatively impact us, our communities, and the planet. Covid-19 showed us very clearly how our society confronts significant injustice, lack of access to health care and education, discrimination, and racism. It also forced us to collectively start thinking of the changes that need to happen. As Virginia Woolf said, “the future is dark, which is the best way the future can be”. Because the future is dark (aka unknown, unseeable), policy students should be part of this process of shaping and creating the future. And it all starts with them thinking about their own personal futures and their roles, whether big or small.
What you have noticed are the effective ingredients associated with getting policy makers to take notice of “evidence?” Another way to think about this is that sometimes policy analysts believe that once you provide the numbers that suggest one policy is “better” than another policy, that’s the end of it.
It is not sustainable to think that once you “have the numbers” another policy should be in the making. As I have learned through my work with social entrepreneurs who are tackling a plethora of issues and challenges, in many cases the impact of policies is not limited to the present. On the contrary. Thinking about the future and how this policy will shape the world is crucial. I see policies as living documents as they are meant to support people whose lives are constantly changing. Therefore, they should be adjusted as well to better reflect the needs and interests of their beneficiaries. A number today does not mean it will tell the same story a few years from now.
It seems that solving today’s problems require much more than a siloed, individualistic approach. What’s your experience suggest?
Among the many things the current pandemic has taught us, one of the most important in my opinion is that developing collaborations and partnerships is a must in order to move things forward. Looking back at the growth SEED Lab (the 8-month long social entrepreneurship pre-accelerator I launched in 2018 at UCR) has experienced I have to credit the amazing network that has developed around the program. From alumni of the program, various UCR faculty members, to community leaders and local entrepreneurs in the IE region, their support not only helped the program be more relevant and timely, but also extended our reach and increased the program’s impact.
Furthermore, it requires understanding. The more I work with mission-driven ventures, for profit and nonprofit alike, the more I believe that understanding who our beneficiary is and the experience we provide (as an organization or through policies) should be at the core of our strategy planning and implementation. Understanding their profiles, from their values, goals, challenges to pain points and objections, their needs and interests is a sine-qua-non condition to generate long-term sustainable system change. It directly informs the messaging strategy and its content which is an important part of the dynamic that we are aiming to build with these beneficiaries and their communities.