Maria Pignataro Nielsen
Maria Pignataro Nielsen is the Director of Human Resources for The Atlantic Philanthropies, with responsibility for developing and executing global human resources strategies and programmes. She is based in New York.
Ms. Nielsen oversees Atlantic’s organisational performance and develops staff programmes to support its culture, values and mission. She works closely with other senior staff on processes related to the foundation’s spend-down plans to close its doors by the end of 2020.
Prior to Atlantic, Ms. Nielsen was with Human Rights Watch for 16 years, creating its human resources function and serving as its Director of Global Human Resources. Earlier, she worked in an administrative capacity at the law firm of White & Case.
Ms. Nielsen serves on InsideNGO’s international board of directors and its Human Resources Advisory Council, and was a founding member of the Steering Committee for the Psychosocial Initiative of Action Without Borders.
She is a graduate of Barnard College in New York and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources with a certificate in international assignment management from the Society for Human Resources Management.
