Biden taps Indian-American diplomat as his envoy to Mali

The White House has said that US President Joe Biden has nominated Indian-American diplomat Rachna Sachdeva Korhonen as his envoy to Mali, the third such nomination of an Indian-American in over a month.

Korhonen is a career member of the US Foreign Service and currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary and Executive Director of the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.

She was previously the consulate general and principal officer of the US Consulate in Dharan, Saudi Arabia, the White House said on Friday.

She also served as a Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Management in Washington and led the Management Section of the US Embassy in Colombo.

Korhonen was among other duties as a supervisory general services officer and senior human resources officer at the US Embassy in Riyadh and the political chief of the provincial reconstruction team in Kirkuk, Iraq.

She also had assignments at the US Embassy in Kuwait and the US Consulate General in Mumbai, according to the White House.

Korhonen finished her undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Mathematics and worked in the corporate sector for AT&T, IBM and the internet startup Zed before joining the State Department. According to her profile on the US State Department's website, she is from Flemington, New Jersey.

In May, President Biden announced that he would nominate Indian-origin diplomat Puneet Talwar as America's ambassador to Morocco and Indian-origin political activist Shefali Razdan Duggal as his envoy to the Netherlands.