Ambassador Pekka Puustinen took up his duties as Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Ministry of Finland, on January 1, 2019. In his present position he is in charge of Internal and External Services including Administration, Personnel, Finances, Legal and Consular Affairs as well as Communications.

From September 2016 until his appointment, Mr Puustinen served as Finland’s Ambassador to the OECD and UNESCO in Paris, France. Before that he worked in, inter alia, as Director General of the Department for Development Policy, Deputy Director General of the Department for the Americas and Asia, and Director for Sectoral Policies. He has served as a diplomat in Paris, Berlin, Bonn and Brussels. His areas of competence include foreign and security policy, international development, trade, finance and administration.

Jan Kleijssen was born in 1958 in Almelo (The Netherlands). He studied International Law at Utrecht State University (LLM in 1981) and International Affairs at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Ottawa (MA 1982). Jan joined the Council of Europe in 1983 as a Lawyer with the European Commission of Human Rights. He was Secretary to the Parliamentary Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee from 1990 to 1999. Jan then served as Director of the Secretary General's Private Office and afterwards as Director and Special Advisor to the President of the Parliamentary Assembly. Jan is currently the Director of Information Society and Action against Crime, Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law, of the Council of Europe. His Directorate carries out standard-setting, monitoring and co-operation activities on a wide variety of issues, including freedom of expression, data protection, internet governance, cybercrime, terrorism, money-laundering and corruption.

Twitter: @JKleijssen