Karin Olofsdotter (diplomat)

This article is about a person whose name includes a patronymic. The article properly refers to the person by their given name, Karin, and not as Olofsdotter.

Karin Ulrika Olofsdotter (born 16 June 1966) is a Swedish diplomat and Swedish Ambassador to the Russian Federation. She was Swedish Ambassador to the United States from 2017 to 2023.^[2] She started her role as Ambassador of Sweden to the United States on 1 September 2017.

Karin Olofsdotter
Olofsdotter in 2018
Ambassador of Sweden to Russia
In office 15 August 2023 – 2025
Preceded by	Malena Mård
Succeeded by	Christina Johannesson
Ambassador of Sweden to the United States
In office 2017 – 14 August 2023
Preceded by	Björn Lyrvall
Succeeded by	Urban Ahlin
Ambassador of Sweden to Hungary
In office 2011–2014
Preceded by	Cecilia Björner
Succeeded by	Niclas Trouvé
Personal details
Born	(1966-06-16) 16 June 1966 (age 59) Sweden
Parent(s)	Olle and Eivor Svensson
Alma mater	Lund University (BA, 1994) University of California, Los Angeles
[1]

Career

Karin Olofsdotter entered the Foreign Service in 1994, and served as Chief of Staff to several Swedish Foreign Ministers and as Director of the Ministers Office in Stockholm before joining the Embassy in Washington.^[3][4]

Before her assignment to Washington, D.C., Olofsdotter served as Director-General for Trade at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Sweden from 1 September 2016. Olofsdotter has also held the position of Deputy Director-General and Head of the Department for Promotion of Sweden, Trade and CSR in Stockholm in the two years prior.^[5]

From 2011 to August 2014, Olofsdotter was Swedish Ambassador to Hungary.^[6] While in Hungary, on 9 September 2012, Olofsdotter attend the "dedication ceremony yesterday of the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Park, which was held in the courtyard of the Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest".^[7] From 2008 and 2011, Olofsdotter was Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington, D.C.^[8]

She has also served at the Swedish EU Representation in Brussels, Belgium, working with European security policy and defense issues. She chaired the EU's Political-Military Group during the Swedish Presidency of the EU in 2001. Prior to this she worked at the Swedish delegation to NATO.^[9] Her first posting was in Moscow, Russia, where she was mainly responsible for covering Belarus.

As a part of diplomatic outreach, Olofsdotter, with Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was part of a town hall style meeting in Peters Township, south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.^[10]

Ambassador Olofsdotter has a B.A. in psychology, economics and Russian. She studied at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and speaks Swedish, Russian, French and English.

Media

On 22 July 2024, she acted as Sommar host.^[11]

Publications

• Sweden refused to impose a coronavirus lockdown. The country's ambassador explains why, Los Angeles Times, 2020^[12]