Patrick Masson joined the Open Source Initiative as General Manager in November of 2013 after working in higher education technology for over twenty years: first as a Programmer Analyst at The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and Director of the UCLA Media Lab, then Chief Information Officer at The State University of New York, College of Technology at Delhi (SUNY Delhi), and most recently, as the Chief Technology Officer for UMassOnline within the University of Massachusetts' Office of the President. Patrick is an Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany, teaching Open Source Principles and Practices within the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences' Department of Informatics.

Patrick has worked to promote the awareness and adoption of open source, particularly within education, throughout his career. He served on the Jasig Foundation's Board of Directors, and is currently on the Apereo Foundation's Advisory Council as well as Brandeis University's Graduate Professional Studies Advisory Board. He is the co-founder and current chair of the Educause Constituency Group on Openness. Patrick was also elected to his local Board of Education in 2014.