Her Excellency Ms. Pernille Dahler Kardel has been the Danish ambassador to Australia and New Zealand since September 2020.

She has been active in international diplomacy for more than 30 years, having held senior positions with the United Nations and the Danish Foreign Ministry. Her diplomatic expertise includes posts in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and North America, and covers political affairs, peace facilitation, international cooperation, and economic development, as well as a focus in the area of women, peace and security.

Ambassador Kardel comes to Australia after she served as Ambassador, Peace, Stabilization and SCR 1325 (Women Peace and Security) in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Before that, she served as UN Under Secretary General and Acting UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon from November 2017 through February 2019. She came to that post after a tour as Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in 2016-17.

Previously, she held the post of Ambassador of Denmark to Egypt (2012-16) and to Ethiopia accredited also to Sudan, South Sudan and Djibouti (2007-2012). In Ethiopia, she served as Denmark’s Permanent Representative to the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Earlier, she was posted to the Permanent Mission of Denmark to the United
Nations in New York, including during Denmark’s membership of the Security Council. She has also served in Moscow and New Delhi. She is a member of the Nordic Women Mediators Network, Denmark.

Ms. Kardel holds master’s degrees in international public policy from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in the United States and in interdisciplinary planning from Roskilde University in Denmark. She studied environmental studies for a year (1988) at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
She has been awarded Knight First Class of the Order of Dannebrog by Her Majesty, Queen Margrethe the Second of Denmark.