Tanya Pinto, Founder & President of Baal Dan Charities
Tanya Pinto is a global citizen and committed humanitarian with 20+ years of experience in brand strategy, communications, market research and non-profit management.
A consultative and collaborative leader, Tanya Pinto can quickly assess business problems and provide actionable insights. At Microsoft since 2017, Tanya Pinto is a Principal UX Researcher in Microsoft’s Experiences + Devices division working on Copilot. in Office. At Microsoft she also was part of the Compass program managing Higher Education customers, Office Product Group research and Communications and spent 4 years in Microsoft's central Research + Insights organization leading Worldwide Education Research (K12 and Higher Education) and Communications.
Prior to Microsoft, Tanya ran her own consulting practice, Shakti Consulting LLC., specializing in brand strategy, cause marketing and qualitative research. Her clientele included global creative agencies such as Lagardère Group (New York) and Tribal Brands (Silicon Valley) where she was hired to work on cause campaigns for Pfizer (Emergen-C and charity: water, UNHCR and Save the Children). Tanya was hired to lead the global rebranding strategies of World Vision International (WVI) for their Food, Maternal Health, WASH and Humanitarian Emergency Affairs divisions and moderate a conference on Food Security at the headquarters of the UN World Food Program in Rome. Other consulting assignments for WVI included field video reporting (60+ videos), and deployments in Ethiopia, Bur Amino UNHCR Refugee Camp in Dollo Somalia, Senegal and Zambia. Tanya was also based for a time in Malaysia where she led Communications/Media for the “OneGoal” consortium to end child hunger as the cause platform of the FIFA/AFC Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Tanya began her career in advertising, spending 13+ years at industry-leading creative agency The Richards Group (Dallas, Texas) working on a variety of CPG, B2C, B2B and tech brands including Nokia and Travelocity as an Account Director & Planner. Tanya gained a depth and breadth of experience in branding and the production of numerous television, print, radio, outdoor and Internet campaigns including a Super Bowl television spot. Tanya also helped to build the agency’s cause marketing practice and brokered cause marketing partnerships including Alex’s Lemonade Stand and Auntie Annes – which is still in place today and raising millions to help pediatric cancer research.
And while working full-time… Tanya founded her own US Public Charity (501c3), Baal Dan (which means donation to children in Hindi) in 2005, after taking a sabbatical to volunteer at Mother Teresa’s orphanage and home for the dying in India. The charity has provided aid to over 12,000 vulnerable children in 12 developing countries, has built two schools and feeds over 1,000 children every day. Tanya has extensive experience in creating effective and enduring partnerships with grassroots organizations and most recently partnered with the Marketing Research Education Foundation to raise over $133,000 to help children impacted by the war in Ukraine. Tanya is the youngest recipient of the John Curtin Medal for Humanitarian Leadership from Curtin University, Australia.
Tanya was born in Mumbai, India, lived in Dubai, UAE until she was 13, and then moved to Perth, Australia, where she attended Corpus Christi College. She graduated with First Class Honors (B.A. Mass Communications) from Curtin University. At the age of 21, she moved to the United States. She is passionate about traveling, running Baal Dan, yoga, meditation, baking and watercolor painting.
Awards:
Winner of the “John Curtin Medal” Humanitarian Leadership Award, Australia, 2011.
Winner of the “Woman of the Year Award”, Harvard Womenʼs Empowerment Conference (WECAN), 2009.
Winner of the “Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Award for Uplifting Human Values”, 2007.
Nominee of the National Association of Asian American Professionals (DFW), 2012 Award for Leaders of Excellence.
Featured as a speaker at TEDxSMU and at numerous business networking events, universities (e.g. Rotary International, Harvard, SMU, UTD) and featured in the media on NBC TV (DFW), Voice of America, Gulf News, The West Australian and other publications.
Featured as a keynote speaker at the Network of Indian Professionals Outstanding Leaders Conference (OLC), 2012.
Tanya was inspired by this quote from Mother Teresa
and it is at the heart of her mission with Baal Dan.