Patrick Ellen

Prior to joining On Purpose, Patrick worked for 8 years in the retail and FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods industries). He spent 5 years at Unilever, where most recently he worked in their global skin care division, launching beauty brands into new international markets, channels, and retailers.

Prior to this, he worked in category management for the UK division, providing insight and advisory services to all major UK retailers. He was also one of the founding members of the UK & Ireland chapter of ProUd, the Unilever LGBTQIA+ employee support network.

Before joining Unilever, Patrick also completed the commercial graduate training scheme at Boots, where he worked across buying and brand functions in health & beauty.

Patrick holds a BA in Korean Studies from the University of Sheffield, for which he also studied a year abroad at Yonsei University in South Korea. After graduation, he also completed a yearlong intensive course at the Literature Translation Institute of Korea in Seoul on a full scholarship.

In his spare time, he can normally be found training in taekwondo after a long break of 10 years, running, hiking, or trying to improve his Spanish and Korean through watching films. He joins On Purpose as part of the October 2020 cohort with a passion to apply his commercial skills and experience to address the intertwined issues of climate and social justice.