Patten built a business advisory firm in the Republican of Kazakhstan in the late 1990s that provided public and government relations services for a number of Western investors, including Coca-Cola, TEXACO, and AES, a global power company.  He worked with consumer products companies for form an association to collectively advocate for sensible regulations on their businesses, promoted the opening of a chain of modern filling stations, and assisted an electrical and heating utility during the country’s transition to a free market system.  Later, Patten re-opened IRI’s Kazakhstan office in 2003, and for Freedom House, monitored the country’s compliance with its commitments undertaken in Madrid before acceding to the chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.