Patrick Tolani is currently the Executive Director/CEO of the Oxfordshire Equality Human Rights Council, the equality and human rights organization covering Oxfordshire. A professionally trained and experienced organisational development expert, he frequently designs and delivers numerous trainings on equality, diversity and human rights for organisations in the UK. He is an Outcomes champion trained by the Charities Evaluation Service (CES) and a Strategy Champion with the National Council for Voluntary Action (NCVO).

With a multidisciplinary background, he has worked across different sectors (local government, department of justice, private sector, local NGO, international NGO, international organisation as well as the UN System) over a period of 20 years. His areas of interest and involvement ranges from social justice, leadership, international trade law and policy development, environment and sustainability, livelihoods, partnerships development, private sector development, strategic management, programme management to capacity building. He previously worked with UNDP Capacity Building Support programme as Principal Advisor for Trade and Commerce in the Directorate for Commerce, Ministry of Development, Timor-Leste.

Patrick sits on the Board of Oxfordshire County Strategic Partnership and several other bodies in the United Kingdom. Among other posts, he is a Council Member of the Ruskin College, Oxford; supporting higher education for non-traditional learners. He also sits on the Equality and Diversity Board of Bullingdon Prison in Oxfordshire. In his role as the Director of OEHRC, Patrick has hosted delegations from Poland, China and Romania in Oxford in order to deepen understanding of how lessons learnt in the UK can be replicated in those countries.  Patrick has been the Vice Chair for Uni (the umbrella organization for the Black & Minority Ethnic organizations across the South East of England) and in his private time, he is currently developing a programme of Civil Society Infrastructure Support to the Third Sector in Nigeria. 
He graduated from a postgraduate programme at the Cambridge University on Cross-Sector Partnerships. He holds a degree in Law (LL.B, Hons. 1990) and three Master degrees in Law (LL.M 1992 with Best Graduating Student Award); Master in Industrial and Labour Relations (MILR, 1997) and Master in Public Policy and Administration (MPA, 2000) from various Nigerian Universities and was also called to the Nigerian Bar as a Barrister and Solicitor since 1991. He is an alumnus of the Prince’s of Wales Business and Environment Programme (BPE). He is also a full member of the Association of Chief Executive of Voluntary Organizations (ACEVO) as well as the Institute of Fundraising in the United Kingdom.