The Government proposes new ambassadorial appointments

Press release 105/2011
24.3.2011

On Thursday 24 March, the Government decided to propose to the President of the Republic three new appointments. The President of the Republic will appoint the Ambassadors in the presidential session on Friday 25 March.

Counsellor for Foreign Affairs Riitta Korpivaara, as Head of the Finnish Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, as from 1 September 2011.

Korpivaara will move to Abuja, from Brussels, where she has been Minister Counsellor since 2008. She joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1980 and has been a career Diplomatic Service officer since 1995. As well as in Brussels, Korpivaara has served in the Finnish Embassies in Algiers, Bucharest, and Moscow, and in New York and St Petersburg, where she served as Deputy Consul General. In the Ministry, she has held positions in the Legal Department, Political Department, Protocol Department and the Department for External Economic Affairs. In the Administrative Department she served as Head of Training.

Counsellor for Foreign Affairs Pertti Anttinen as Head of the Finnish Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia, as from 1 September 2011.

Anttinen is currently Head of the Unit for Sectoral Policy at the Ministry’s Department for Development Policy. He joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1991. He has served in the Finnish Embassies in Ankara, Dublin and Pretoria. Prior to his career in the Ministry, Anttinen worked for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi.

Counsellor for Foreign Affairs Mikko Pyhälä as the Roving Ambassador in the Caribbean and Venezuela based in Helsinki, as from 1 August 2011.

Pyhälä joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1972. He has served in the Finnish Embassies in Prague, Mexico, New Delhi and Rome, and as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim in Islamabad. He has also served as the Finnish Ambassador in Lima and currently in Caracas, where he is also non-resident Ambassador to the Association of Caribbean States (ACS). In the Ministry, Pyhälä has held various positions in, for example, the Department for Development Cooperation and most recently in the Department for the Americas and Asia. In 1991–95 he worked for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi serving as Chief of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Unit.

Further information: Pirkko Hämäläinen, Deputy Director General for Personnel, tel +358 9 1605 5401