[2] Patel was voted "Ultimate Gamechanger in Politics" by the Huffington Post,[3] and listed in the world's top 100 thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine.
[2][7] Patel studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Balliol College, Oxford,[8] where he helped organize against the 1998 introduction of tuition fees.
[citation needed] After leaving Harvard, Patel lived in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan and Afghanistan, consulting for organizations including the International Crisis Group.
Avaaz campaigns online and off on a number of human rights, social justice, environmental, media freedom and peace and security issues.
[13][14] In a 2023 piece, Patel condemned the cultural movement against systemic-racism and police brutality that occurred in the aftermath of the murders of George Floyd, Briana Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery as one of “woke terror,”[15] that embolden rightwing and leftwing “authoritarians” alike.