Rachna Sachdeva Korhonen is an American diplomat who is the designate to serve as the

United States ambassador to Mali The United States ambassador to Mali is the official representative of the government of the United States to the government of Mali. Ambassadors *Thomas Kenneth Wright (1960-1961) *William Jules Handley (1961-1964) *Charles Robert Moore (1965-19 ...

Early life and education

Korhonen is from

Flemington, New Jersey Flemington is a borough in and the county seat of Hunterdon County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in computer science and mathematics from

Empire State College Empire State College (SUNY Empire or ESC) is a public university headquartered in Saratoga Springs, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. Empire State College is a multi-site institution offering associate, ...

Career

Korhonen began her career as a software programmer for IBM. From 1993 to 1999, she was a technical consultant at

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

. She also worked in sales for the

Zed Group Zed Group is a large organisation of privately held interlocking European companies that provide mobile phone and internet entertainment, film animation and video game production. Besides the main company also named Zed, other important companie ...

Telia Company Telia Company AB is a Swedish multinational telecommunications company and mobile network operator present in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Telia also owns TV4 Media which includes TV4 in Sweden, MTV Oy in Fi ...

, and Infosys. Korhonen joined the United States Foreign Service in 2004 and served in Dharan, Colombo, and Washington, D.C. Korhonen also served in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs and Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. She was also an advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Management, under secretary of state for management.

Nomination as U.S. ambassador to Mali

On April 22, 2022, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Korhonen to be the next

. On April 25, 2022, her nomination was sent to the United States Senate, Senate. On August 3, 2022, hearings on her nomination were held before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senate Foreign Relations Committee. On December 7, 2022, the committee favorably reported her nomination to the Senate. On December 13, 2022, her nomination was confirmed by the Senate by voice vote. She is awaiting her swearing-in and presentation of credentials.

Personal life

Korhonen speaks Hindi, French language, French, Finnish language, Finnish and Arabic.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Korhonen, Rachna Living people 21st-century American diplomats American women diplomats Empire State College alumni People from Flemington, New Jersey United States Department of State officials United States Foreign Service personnel Year of birth missing (living people)