David Nielsen, Senior Advisor

Nielsen spearheads the Public Affairs division of MJE Marketing. He is the co-founder and former president of MNA Consulting. This well-respected public affairs agency merged with MJE Marketing in 2008. Nielsen specializes in strategic planning, project coordination, entitlement processing and political and community outreach. He has represented more than 50 private sector, non-profit and public sector clients, including the San Diego Padres Baseball Club, the Otay Mesa Planning Coalition, UCSD Health Sciences, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and various property owner and home owners groups.

Prior to founding MNA Consulting, Nielsen served as Executive Vice President of the San Diego National Sports Training Foundation, where he oversaw the development of the $80 million ARCO Training Center in the City of Chula Vista, including overseeing the CEQA process and production of the Environmental Impact Report. The center is the largest Olympic training facility in the United States.

Nielsen has more than 20 years of experience in local government in San Diego. At the City of San Diego, he served as Principal Assistant and Chief of Staff to the Mayor and Assistant to the City Manager. While in the Mayor's office, he served on the planning team responsible for the development of the San Diego Convention Center. Nielsen also spent 11 years at the County of San Diego serving in many roles: Director of Special Projects, Deputy Planning Director, Environmental Analysis Coordinator and Assistant to the Health Care Agency Administrator.

He began his career working for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Planning Board. He is a graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois. He earned a Master of Public Administration Degree from the University of Washington Graduate School Of Public Affairs (now the Evans School) in Seattle. He currently sits on the Board of Management for the Border View YMCA.

David Nielsen: Linked In