Amb. Leena Pylvanainen

Leena Pylvänäinen is Ambassador of Finland to Nigeria and to the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), with concurrent accreditation to
Ghana, Liberia and Benin, since September 2021.

Prior to her present posting she was Director for Arms Control at the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs of Finland in Helsinki, and before that, Team Leader for EU Common
Security and Defence Policy, also in Helsinki.

Among her previous postings, she has also served at the Embassies of Finland in
The Hague, Berlin and Bucharest, at the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United
Nations in New York, and as Regional Manager for the Gulf region at the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs.

Leena Pylvänäinen has studied at the universities of Helsinki, Edinburgh and
Würzburg. She holds a Master’s in Social Sciences from the University of Helsinki,
where she held a position as Assistant Lecturer in political history 1996–1997.
In her free time, she enjoys reading, music, cinema and backpack travel. Other
passions include architecture and design.