Pirjo Suomela-Chowdhury

Currently Deputy Director General at the Department for Africa and the Middle East, Pirjo Suomela–Chowdhury has also served at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs as Director for Southern and Western Africa (2022–2023), Director for United Nations Development Affairs (2010–2014), Team Leader for EU Development Policy (2008–2010), and Deputy Director for General Global Affairs (2007–2008).

She has been posted to Abuja, as Ambassador of Finland to Nigeria, Ghana, Benin and Liberia (2014–2018), and to Lusaka, as Ambassador to Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (2018–2022). Her other foreign postings include Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Finland in Santiago de Chile (2003–2007), and Second Secretary at the Embassy of Finland in Beijing, China (2000–2003).

At the Ministry for Foreign Affairs she has also served at the Unit for United Nations Affairs, Political Department, and at the Secretariat for Nordic Cooperation. She holds a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences from the University of Tampere, Finland, and completed the diplomatic training course at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1997