New ambassadors to Switzerland, Brazil, Estonia and Namibia

The President of the Republic appointed on 28 February the following new ambassadors:

Jari Luoto
Counsellor of Foreign Affairs Jari Luoto to the post of the Head of the Embassy of Finland in Bern, Switzerland, as from 1 September 2014.

Luoto will transfer to Switzerland from Brazil, where he has been acting as Ambassador of Finland since 2010. Before this, he served as the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ Baltic Sea Ambassador.

Luoto has international experience also from the Prime Minister's Office, where he served as the Prime Minister's adviser on EU affairs, deputy head of the Government Secretariat for EU Affairs, and later as head of the secretariat, or State-Secretary for EU Affairs. 

Luoto also worked as special adviser to the Prime Minister from 1989 to 1991.

Markku Virri
Counsellor of Foreign Affairs Markku Virri to the post of the Head of the Embassy of Finland in Brasília, Brazil as from 1 September 2014.

At the moment, Virri is acting as Head of the Unit for Arms Control at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In addition to the Political Department, he has also served in various positions at the Department for External Economic Relations, the Department for Development Cooperation, and the Department for the Americas and Asia.

Virri’s latest Finnish embassy assignment was in Ottawa, and earlier ones include London, the Hague and Brasília.

Virri joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs staff in 1991.

Kirsti Narinen
Counsellor of Foreign Affairs Kirsti Narinen to the post of the Head of the Embassy of Finland in Tallinn, Estonia, as from 1 September 2014.

Narinen has also served at the Embassy of Tallinn earlier, in 1993-1998. At Finnish missions abroad, she has also served at the Consulate General of Leningrad – later St. Petersburg – and the Embassy in Ljubljana.

Narinen will transfer to Tallinn from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ Administrative Services, where she has served as the Head of the Occupational Wellbeing Unit. At the Ministry, she has also worked at the Political department and the Department for Europe.

Narinen joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs staff in 1984.

Anne Saloranta
Counsellor of Foreign Affairs Anne Saloranta to the post of the Head of the Embassy of Finland in Windhoek, Namibia as from 1 March 2014.

Saloranta has been acting as Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy in Windhoek since 2011. Now that she is being appointed Head of Mission, the side accreditation of Head of the Embassy of Finland in South Africa Petri Salo to Namibia will be cancelled.

At Finnish missions abroad, Saloranta has also served at the embassy of Budapest and the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations in New York.

At the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Saloranta has worked at the Political Department and the Department for Development Cooperation. She also has international experience from work at the African Development Bank in Tunisia, and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) positions in Namibia.

Saloranta joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs staff in 1997.

The President of the Republic also  granted side accreditation to Seija Toro, Head of the Finnish Embassy in Mozambique, to Angola.

Additional information: Vesa Lehtonen, Deputy Director General for Personnel, tel. +358 295 351 439