The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Culture announced this week the upcoming changeover of heads of the Faroese representations in both Reykjavik and London.
Halla Nolsøe Poulsen will be posted to Reykjavik as Head of the Faroese Representative to Iceland from 1 September this year, replacing Petur Petersen, who will resume duties in the Foreign Service in Tórshavn after 5 years in Reykjavik.
Kate Sanderson will take over as Head of the Faroese Representation to the UK in London. She will commence her posting from 1 February 2021, replacing Áki Johansen who will also return to the Foreign Service in Tórshavn after 5 years in his second posting to the UK.
Halla Nolsøe Poulsen is 42 years old and has a degree in political science from the University of Copenhagen. After a period at the Royal Danish Embassy in Washington DC, she began work in the Foreign Office in 2005, and was seconded as adviser in the Nordic Council Secretariat in Copenhagen from 2007 to 2016.
Kate Sanderson is 59 years old and has a Master of Philosophy from the University of Sydney, Australia. She has worked in the Faroese government since 1986. From 1993 to 1998 she was the first General Secretary of NAMMCO, the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission, based in Tromsø, Norway. Kate Sanderson was Head of the Mission of the Faroes to the EU in Brussels from 2012 to 2018.
With these new postings, full gender parity now exists between the six Faroese diplomatic Representations abroad. Other Faroese diplomats currently posted abroad are Elin Mortensen, Head of Mission to the EU in Brussels, Hákun J. Djurhuus, Head of Representation to the Russian Federation in Moscow, Sigmundur Ísfeld, Head of the Faroese Representation to China in Beijing and Jóannes V. Hansen, Head of the Faroese Representation in Copenhagen.
Faroese diplomatic representations overseas are a part of the Faroese Foreign Service, which is the unit in the Faroese Government responsible for the coordination of Faroese foreign relations. The Foreign Service, first established in 1998 as a department of the Prime Minister’s Office, is today a part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Culture. Jenis av Rana is Minister of Foreign Affairs and Culture.