Biography
Social entrepreneur and film and TV producer Marcos Nisti has a degree in Law and an MBA in Public Sector Economics from FIPE/USP. He is one of the creators of Terra Project, a pioneer in the concept of fair trade in Brazil. He is Vice-President at Alana, a global organization created and financed by his family, which includes the Alana Institute, the Alana Foundation, and AlanaLab. Alana Institute is a nonprofit civil society organization that, in co-creation with Marcos, has carried out projects such as Child and Consumerism, Absolute Priority, and Videocamp. He also co-founded the Alana Foundation, the institution's philanthropic arm based in the United States, aiming to invest in research in health, inclusive education, and the environment. In 2019, he co-created the Alana Down Syndrome Center with a donation of 30 million dollars to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the development of new research on Down syndrome. He also co-created and funds the RainForest Alana XPrize, a 10 million dollar prize for solutions to protect the biodiversity of the planet's tropical forests.
He is one of the founders of Maria Farinha Films, the first film production company in the global south to receive the international B Corp certification, which aims to certify companies that use the power of their business to create solutions for social and environmental problems in the world. Marcos acted as producer of films such as 'Target Market: Kids' (2008), a documentary about the effects that mass media and advertising have on children, 'Way Beyond Weight' (2012), a documentary about childhood obesity, and the franchise 'The Beginning of Life' (2016 and 2020), a film about early childhood that was launched at the UN and acted as the main tool of UNICEF's international campaign on early childhood.
He is also one of the creators, writers, and producers of TV series 'Aruanas' (2019 and 2021), a two-season environmental thriller inspired by real events which tells the story of four activists who run an NGO dedicated to socio-environmental causes. The series made headlines in major newspapers around the world, reached Trending Topic on Global Twitter for more than 9 hours straight, and had 89% positive reactions on social media, and was seen by more than 33 million people in Brazil alone. Aruanas is a co-production between Rede Globo and Maria Farinha. Marcos is currently the author and screenwriter of 'Esperanza,' an international series co-produced with American film company Participant, and 'The Most Important Reality in the World,' in partnership with Endemol, as well as 'Aruanas' feature film 'The Rescue.'
