Aalto appointed Ambassador to Sweden, Pyhälä to Venezuela

The President of the Republic appointed today the following new ambassadors:

Councellor of Foreign Affairs Alec Aalto was appointed appointed as Finland's Ambassador to Sweden as of June 1, 2006.

Aalto, who is presently Finland's Ambassador to Italy, has served the Ministry for Foreign Affairs since 1979 as Director General of the Department for Press and Cultural Affairs, Deputy Director General of the Department for Foreign Trade and Finland´s Ambassador to Austria and Permanent Representative to the UN Organisations in Vienna. He has also served in the Prime Minister´s Office the years 1995-2003 as Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister, Head of the Government´s Secretariat for EU Affairs and State Secretary for EU Affairs.

Prior to entering the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Mr Aalto has worked as journalist at the Finnish Broadcasting Company, Head of Information for the Government and Vice President for Communications at Neste Corporation.

Councellor of Foreign Affairs Mikko Pyhälä was appointed as Finland's Ambassador to Venezuela as of March 1, 2006.

Pyhälä has served the Ministry for Foreign Affairs since 1972. He has been posted to Finnish Embassies in Prague, Mexico, New Delhi and Rome. He has been Charge d'Affaires in Islamabad and Ambassador to Lima, Peru. In the Ministry for Foreign Affairs he has worked in the Department for Development Cooperation and the Department for the Americas and Asia, his latest responsibility being the portfolio for tsunami reconstruction.

In 1991-1995 Pyhälä worked at the UNEP office in Nairobi, heading the unit for the Global Environment Facility.