Earlier Lisbeth Pilegaard founded and ran a Foreign Policy Consultancy, serving the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Civil Society, think tanks and the UN. Pilegaard has also served in various NGO/UN/EU committees and working groups on development and humanitarian aid coordination, coherence, and transparency. She has been a civil society member of the Danish Delegation to the UN Commission of the Status of Women (CSW) and sat in the Council of the NGO ActionAid — Denmark. She has also been a board member of Transparency International — DK Chapter and was appointed Adviser to the UN Compact Cities Programme in Australia. Pilegaard is a Steering Member of the Nordic Women Mediators Network working for the inclusion of women into peace processes globally and is a Leadership Fellow at the St. George’s House, Windsor Castle, UK. She has held board positions in the LIVIA Foundation, the Anna Lindh Foundation and has been the chairperson of the Danish Council for International Conflict Resolution (RIKO). Pilegaard has been a guest lecturer at different institutions such as the University of Aalborg and the NATO School in Oberammergau. Pilegaard has a MA in Rhetoric with a focus on peace negotiations from the University of Copenhagen.
