New Ambassadors appointed
The President of the Republic decided on 15 March the following appointments and mandates of new ambassadors and side accreditations:
Counsellor for Foreign Affairs Sirpa Mäenpää to the post of Head of the Embassy of Finland in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as from 1 September 2013.
Mäenpää is currently Finland’s Ambassador to Bangkok, with responsibility for Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. She has worked at the diplomatic missions of Finland previously, serving at the Embassy of Finland in Nairobi and as the Chargé d’Affaires ad interim in Managua.
At the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Helsinki, Mäenpää has worked in the Department for Development Policy as well as holding various positions in the Department for Africa and the Middle East, most recently as Deputy Director General.
Mäenpaa began working at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1983.
Counsellor for Foreign Affairs Kirsti Westphalen to the post of Head of the Embassy of Finland in Bangkok, Thailand as from 1 September 2013.
Westphalen transfers to Bangkok from Los Angeles, where she has served as the Consul General of Finland since 2008. She has worked at Finnish diplomatic missions abroad in Paris, Beijing and Damascus as well as at the Permanent Mission of Finland to the UN in New York. She has also worked as the Chargé d'Affaires ad interim at the Embassy of Finland in Rabat.
At the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Westphalen has held positions in the Department for External Economic Relations, the Department for Communication and Culture, the Protocol Department, the Department for Development Cooperation, the Political Department and the Department for Africa and the Middle East. During her career she has also been the Ministry’s coordinator for contacts with representatives of the Islamic world and leader of the team for intercultural and inter-religious dialogue.
Westphalen came to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1981.
The President of the Republic appointed and mandated Chief of Cabinet Katja Pehrman to act as the Permanent Representative of Finland to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as from 1 September 2013.
At present Pehrman is the Diplomatic Adviser and Chief of Cabinet to Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja. She has previously discharged various tasks at the Political Department, most recently as the Adviser to the General Director and the Under-Secretary of State. Pehrman has worked especially with security policy issues, including at the Unit for Arms Control.
She has served at diplomatic missions abroad, working at the Permanent Mission of Finland to the UN in New York, handling, among others, EU Presidency tasks. In addition, she has worked at Finland’s Permanent Mission to the OSCE in Vienna, among others chairing the OSCE Advisory Committee on Management and Finance during Finland’s Chairmanship of the OSCE.
Pehrman came to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 2002.
In addition, the President of the Republic granted side accreditation to the following ambassadors:
Ambassador Matti Pullinen, Head of the Embassy of Finland in Kuala Lumpur, to represent Finland also in the Philippines; and
Ambassador Petri Salo, Head of the Embassy of Finland in Pretoria, to represent Finland also in Lesotho.
Additional information: Vesa Lehtonen, Deputy Director General for Personnel, tel. +358 9 1605 5401