Promoting Change Through Work

If Elena Pirondini’s life were a film, it would have to be set in New York. The Big Apple is where her international career has played out, culminating in the position of Chief of Corporate Performance and Foresight at UNFPA, the UN agency that protects the right to sexual and reproductive health worldwide. In her words: “From a very young age, thanks to my parents, I was a citizen of the world. And after growing up in Como, Italy, I felt I wanted to live in a big city instead.”

Rewinding the film, Pirondini says that she had a classical education in high school and then chose to study Business Administration at Bocconi. “After graduating, I won a scholarship from the Fondazione Cariplo to attend a course on managing non-profits at New York University, and I did an internship at the Ford Foundation.” With her first taste of New York, she fell in love with what she describes as “the best city in the world.”

Back in Italy, Pirondini worked for A.T. Kearney in Milan for seven years, and learned about various business sectors.  But the wider world beckoned again. This time, it was Boston. “I had the opportunity to study for two years at Harvard Business School for a Master’s in Business Administration. It was a one-of-a-kind experience. From professors to classmates, I was surrounded by exceptional people: brilliant, always striving to do more and do better, yet at the same time they were extremely human.”

But she left her heart in New York. And in 2004, after a volunteer experience in Kolkata that rekindled her vocation to use her skills in service of others, Pirondini found a vacancy on the UN website and applied. “I remember the interview as if it just happened, an hour and a half on the phone with the interview panel. It went so well that I said to a friend who I ran into right afterwards: ‘I think I’m going to New York.’” And that’s just what happened.

One of the few people in her agency with a degree in Business Administration, Pirondini has held a wide range of roles over the past 18 years. In fact, she has been involved in change management, partnerships, and served as special assistant to an under-secretary-general and coordinator of the UN’s largest family planning program. 
“The recipe for good leadership is passion and authenticity,” 
she tells us. 

Pirondini has an appeal for young people studying business administration and management: “They should also look into international organizations. There is a tremendous need for management skills,” she says. 

In conclusion: “I work every day to advance the 2030 Agenda, to give all women and girls the chance to have their human rights respected, wherever they are in the world. It really is a challenging goal. But I am not giving up and I will continue to work, day by day, to promote change.”