Biden to nominate Indian American career diplomat as envoy to Mali

iNDICA News Bureau-

President Joe Biden announced Friday his decision to nominate Rachna Korhonen, an Indian American career diplomat, as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Republic of Mali in West Africa.

Rachna Sachdeva Korhonen is a member of the U.S. Foreign Service and currently serves as a deputy assistant secretary and executive director of the combined executive offices of the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.

Previously, she was consul general and principal officer of the U.S. consulate in Dharan, Saudi Arabia. She has also led the management section of the U.S. embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In Washington, she has served as a special assistant to the undersecretary for management.

Among her other assignments, Korhonen was the supervisory general services officer and senior human resources officer at the U.S. embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and political chief of the provincial reconstruction team in Kirkuk, Iraq.

She also had assignments at the U.S. embassy in Kuwait and the U.S. consulate general in Mumbai, India.

A resident of New Jersey, Korhonen earned her BS in computer science and mathematics from Empire State College. According to Wikipedia, she began her career as a software programmer for IBM. From 1993 to 1999, she was a technical consultant at AT&T. She also worked in sales for the Zed Group, Telia Company, and Infosys.

Korhonen joined the United States Foreign Service in 2004. She speaks Hindi, French, Finnish and Arabic.