New Heads of Mission to Latvia, South Korea and Consulate General in New York

The President of the Republic appointed today, 27 January, the following Ambassadors:

Counsellor for Foreign Affairs Pirkko Hämäläinen as Head of the Finnish Embassy in Riga, Latvia, from 1 September 2012.

Hämäläinen has served as Deputy Director General for Personnel since 2009. She has held positions in the Administrative Department also earlier, serving, for example, as Adviser to the Under-Secretary of State for Administrative Affairs. Hämäläinen has also worked in the Ministry’s Legal and Political Departments. In the Department for Communications and Culture, she has held the position of Head of Europe Information.

In the Diplomatic Service, Hämäläinen has served in the Finnish missions in Tallinn, Vienna and Reykjavik and in the Permanent Mission of Finland to the UN in New York.

Hämäläinen joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1989.

Counsellor for Foreign Affairs Matti Heimonen as Head of the Finnish Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, from 1 September 2012.

Heimonen will transfer to Seoul from Shanghai, China, where he has served as Consul General in Finland’s Consulate General since 2008. He joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1986 and has handled mainly tasks relating to external economic relations, but has held positions also in the Political and Administrative Departments.

In the Diplomatic Service, Heimonen has served not only in Shanghai but also in the Permanent Mission of Finland in Geneva and in the Finnish missions in Riyadh, Bonn, Berlin and Tokyo.

Counsellor for Foreign Affairs Jukka Pietikäinen as Head of the Finnish Consulate General in New York from 1 September 2012.

Pietikäinen has served as Finland’s Ambassador to Argentina since 2008. He has also served in the Finnish missions in Vienna, Bogota, Bern, Madrid and Mexico, and in the Permanent Mission of Finland to the UN in New York.

In the Ministry, Pietikäinen’s latest position was Head of the Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean. He has also served in the Department for External Economic Relations and the Political Department, Department for Europe and Department for Communications and Culture.

Pietikäinen joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1984.

From 1991 to 1993, Pietikäinen served as Deputy Field Adviser of the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) in Colombia.

Further information: Vesa Lehtonen, Chief for Personnel Planning, tel. +358 9 1605 5410