Ambassador Jüri Seilenthal took up his duties as Permanent Representative of Estonia to the OECD on 8 September 2025. Ambassador Seilenthal is also Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Estonia to UNESCO.
Prior to his appointment as Permanent Representative to the OECD and UNESCO, Mr. Seilenthal was Director General for Foreign Economic Policy and International Economic Organisations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia. From August 2015 to 2022 he served as Director General for Foreign Economic Policy and Development Cooperation. During the Estonian Presidency of the EU (2017-II) he was theme leader for development cooperation and humanitarian assistance responsible for 4 EUworking groups: Working Party on Development Cooperation (CODEV), Working Party on Humanitarian Aid and Food Aid (COHAFA), African, Caribbean and Pacific Working Party (ACP) and Working party on international developing conferences (WPIDC). Since autumn 2018 he has also been Estonia’s member of the EU Trade Policy Committee.
He was Permanent Representative of Estonia to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva from August 2009 until July 2015. In addition, he held a number of elective or nominated positions: from September 2012 he was President of the Trade and Development Board of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and friend of Chair/facilitator at both UNCTAD XIII (Doha) and XIV (Nairobi). From September 2011 to September 2012, Mr. Seilenthal chaired the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Coordination Committee, and prior to this, from March 2011 to March 2012 he was a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Council for Trade in Goods and was also Vice-President of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Protocol V in 2012.
From 2006 to 2009 he was Chief of Staff of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia. Concurrently, from June 2007 to May 2015 he was the Estonian Ambassador to the Holy See (non-resident).
He has also been the Estonian Ambassador to Italy from 2002 to to 2006, and concurrently to Malta from 2003 to 2006.
Before that, from April 1999 to August 2002, he served as Deputy Permanent Undersecretary for Administrative Affairs and, from 1999 to 2010, he was the head of the Estonian Government Delegation for negotiations on diplomatic real estate with the Russian Federation and was also concurrently the non-resident Ambassador to Israel from 1999 to 2004. From April 1997 to April 1999 he was Estonia’s first Chargé d’Affaires in Ireland.
Before joining the public service in 1995, Mr. Seilenthal has briefly worked for a bank, was President of the Student Union of Tartu University (1993-1994) and worked for a leading public opinion research company (TNS-Emor).
He graduated from Tartu University cum laude with an M.A in 1993. From 1991 to 1992, he studied at the University of Lund in Sweden.
Mr. Seilenthal is fluent in Estonian, English, Finnish, Russian and Italian and has some knowledge of French and German. He is married and has a son and a daughter.