Ambassador Marie T. Huhtala
(2001-2004)
Marie T. Huhtala was sworn in as the American Ambassador to Malaysia on September 13, 2001, and arrived in Kuala Lumpur to take up her post on September 30.
A native of California, Ms. Huhtala joined the Foreign Service in November 1972. Her previous assignments overseas were in Paris, France (1973-75), Chiang Mai, Thailand (1976-79), Taipei, Taiwan (1984-85), Hong Kong (1985-87) and Quebec, Canada (1992-95). Just prior to her nomination as Ambassador, she served as Deputy Chief of Mission in the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand (1998-2001).
Ms. Huhtala has also spent many years working in the State Department in Washington. Her assignments there have included stints as a staff officer in the Secretariat, as a Congressional Relations Officer, and as Chief of the Foreign Service's East Asia Assignments Division. She served as Deputy Director of the Office of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodian Affairs (1990-92) during the last stages of the Paris Peace Accords for Cambodia and the initiation of the normalization of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Vietnam. Four years later she returned to that Office, which had expanded to include Thailand and Burma, as Director (1996-98), where she coordinated the U.S. response to issues ranging from the outbreak of fighting in Cambodia and the struggle for democracy in Burma to negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement with Vietnam and the economic crisis in Thailand.