Patrick Larkin

A nationally recognized economic development professional, Pat Larkin is one of the Commonwealth’s earliest practitioner’s to focus on collaboration between industry, academia, and government to strengthen ecosystems for innovation and devise and deploy pathways for economic growth and opportunity.His efforts include playing a leading role in facilitating innovation driven economic growth across Massachusetts through nimble public sector investments and customized, on the ground interventions to seed the conditions for sustainable economic growth.

In his role as Director of the Innovation Institute, Larkin overseas investment activities of the Innovation Institute’s Collaborative Research Matching Grant Program, Technology & Innovation Ecosystem Awards Program, MassTech Intern Partnership Program, Strong Entrepreneur Mentorship Grant Program, and Pathways to Scale Mentorship Grant Program.

To date the Innovation Institute’s R&D Fund has awarded $50 million, leveraging more than $100 million in Center-based investments such as the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Teaching and Innovation Center at Boston University, UMass Boston Collaborative Network for Quantum Hardware Development and Commercialization, Assistive Technology Initiative at Harvard University, and UMass Dartmouth Marine and Environmental Testing Laboratory, along with other investments at public and private research universities.

Larkin is currently engaged in projects to improve economic conditions for Fintech, robotics, blockchain, quantum computing, marine tech, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and other key innovation sectors in the Massachusetts economy.As an example of these efforts, Larkin has been instrumental in the launch of the Mass Fintech Hub, a unique Fintech collaborative focused on cultivating a robust ecosystem in Massachusetts, along with establishment of the Massachusetts Robotics Industry Steering Committee, a leadership group that advances Massachusetts as a global leader in advanced robotics systems.

Throughout his illustrative 30-year career in economic development in Massachusetts, Larkin has been instrumental in the formation of projects such as the Massachusetts Life Sciences Collaborative, a leadership group that inspired formation of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center; the establishment of a Renewable Energy Trust in 1998, which today supports alternative energy projects and initiatives through the work of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center; and the establishment of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, which was inspired by his pioneering work on Berkshire Connect, a project dedicated to driving competitive pricing and service for enterprise-level firms in the rural communities of Berkshire County in western Massachusetts.

Recognized as a reliable state partner for economic development across the Commonwealth, Larkin has championed and supported the work of organizations such Entrepreneurship For All (EforAll), a nonprofit focused on inclusive entrepreneurship; MassChallenge, supporting innovation and entrepreneurship through collaboration; the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDigi); Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC); Massachusetts Open Cloud Initiative; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’s Consortium for Marine Robotics; and the East West Exchange Program, along with many other impactful economic development initiatives across the state.

Since initial publication in 1997 Larkin has been involved in the production of the Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy, an annual publication that benchmarks and evaluates emerging trends in the Massachusetts Innovation Economy.