Ritva koukku-ronde biography

The Nordic nation of Finland, where more than 60% of the population speaks at least some English, has sent its first female ambassador to the United States. Ritva Koukku-Ronde, a former journalist with experience in global development issues, took over on September 1, 2011, and presented her credentials to President Barack Obama eight days later.

 

Born April 15, 1956, in Lahti, Finland, Koukku-Ronde earned an M.A.

in History in 1982 at the University of Tampere, having written a thesis titled “A legal obligation, or in vain? Arguments for women’s suffrage used in the British Parliament, 1907-1918.” She worked as a freelance journalist from 1982 to 1985, when she joined the Finnish Foreign Service.

 

Koukku-Ronde started at the Foreign Affairs Ministry with three one-year assignments: as an attaché in the Press and Cultural Section in 1985; as an attaché at the Finnish embassy in Bonn, West Germany, in 1986; and as an attaché in t