Speaker Profile

Patrick Burke is a hockey lifer in the truest sense- born into a hockey family, Burke graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2006 and began his hockey career as a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers. While honing his eye for talent, Burke continued to expand his skillset by attending law school at New England Law. Upon graduation in 2013, Burke was hired by the NHL league office to work in their Department of Player Safety, utilizing his unique combination of hockey expertise and legal knowledge to move the department forward in how it monitors games and issues supplementary discipline. 

Burke is the co-founder and former President of the You Can Play Project, which fights for LBGTQ+ inclusion in sports. Burke was inspired by the story of his late brother Brendan Burke, who was one of the first in men’s hockey to come out publicly as gay. After Brendan’s tragic death in a car accident in 2010, Patrick vowed to continue Brendan’s message of inclusion, hope, and acceptance in sports. 

Burke continues to use his position in the NHL to fight for a more inclusive sports culture. Burke was the driving force behind Kendall Coyne-Schofield becoming the first woman to appear in the NHL’s Skills Competition in 2019. Burke also has served as a member of the NHL’s Inclusion Steering Committee. He also helped launch and served as the executive lead for the NHL’s Young Professionals Employee Resource Group and the NHL’s Pride ERG. For his efforts to improve the game both on and off the ice, Burke was named to the Sports Business Journal’s 2022 Forty Under 40 list. 

Burke lives in Brooklyn with his wife Caiti Donovan (a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community and a WNBA executive), their daughter Harper, and their dog.

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