Simona Leskovar is a career diplomat with more than twenty years of service in Slovenian diplomacy. She was appointed Minister of State (State Secretary) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in September 2018. Prior to this appointment, she served as Ambassador of Slovenia to Japan and non-resident Ambassador to the Republic of Korea for three years. Before her posting in Tokyo, she was Head of State Secretary's office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Director of the Young Bled Strategic Forum 2015. In August 2013, she was appointed to coordinate the national efforts of Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P). From November 2008 to November 2012, Ambassador Leskovar was Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the United Nations in New York. From 2005 to 2008, she held various positions in the Cabinet of the Foreign Minister, including one during the Slovenian EU Presidency. From 2001 to 2004, she served at the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Washington.

Ambassador Leskovar studied international relations at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, and at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations, Clingendael, in The Hague.