Ambassador Emerita Kirsti Kauppi served for over 40 years in the Finnish foreign service before retiring in January 2024.
Kirsti Kauppi concluded her career in diplomacy in Geneva as Head of the Finnish Permanent Mission to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva. Before moving to Switzerland, she was the Finnish Ambassador to the United States of America (2015-2020). Her first ambassadorial assignment was from 2005 to 2009 in Vienna as Ambassador to Austria and Permanent Representative to the UN organizations in Vienna.
Kirsti Kauppi has served earlier in different capacities in the Finnish Embassies in Berlin (2003-2005), Washington (1997-2000) and Bangkok (1989-1992) as well as the Finnish Permanent Mission to the European Union (1993-1997). Her first posting abroad was in Geneva (1985-1986) in the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Her career in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland included the posts of Director General of the Political Department (2012-2015) and Director General of the Department for Africa and the Middle East (2009-2012) as well as different positions primarily in the political department and early on in her career in the department for development cooperation.
Kirsti Kauppi was born in 1957 in Oulu, Northern Finland. She received her degree in Economics in 1981 from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration.
In addition to Finnish, she is fluent in English as well as Swedish and German, and also knows French and some Italian.