Britain's MI6 spy agency gets its first female chief
[June 16, 2025]
By JILL LAWLESS
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Britain’s real-life spies have finally caught up
with James Bond. MI6 has appointed its first female chief.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Sunday that Blaise Metreweli will
be the next head of the U.K.’s foreign intelligence agency, and the
first woman to hold the post since its founding in 1909. She is
currently the MI6 director of technology and innovation — the real-world
equivalent of Bond gadget-master Q.
A career intelligence officer, Metreweli, 47, steps from the shadows
into the light as the only MI6 employee whose name is made public. She
said "I am proud and honored to be asked to lead my Service."
Starmer said the “historic appointment” comes at a time “when the work
of our intelligence services has never been more vital.
“The United Kingdom is facing threats on an unprecedented scale – be it
aggressors who send their spy ships to our waters or hackers whose
sophisticated cyber plots seek to disrupt our public services,” he said.
Starmer made the announcement as he arrived in the Canadian province of
Alberta for a Group of Seven leaders’ summit.
Metreweli takes over at MI6 as the agency faces growing challenges from
states including China and Russia, whose use of cyber tools, espionage,
and influence operations threatens global stability and British
interests, even as it remains on alert against terrorist threats.
Metreweli is the first woman to get the top job, known as C – rather
than M, the fictional MI6 chief of the 007 thrillers. M was played
onscreen by Judi Dench in seven Bond movies starting in the 1990s.
She will take up her post in the fall, replacing Richard Moore, who has
held the job for five years.
Britain’s two other main intelligence agencies have already shattered
the spy world’s glass ceiling. MI5, the domestic security service, was
led by Stella Rimington from 1992 to 1996 and Eliza Manningham-Buller
between 2002 and 2007. Anne Keast-Butler became head of electronic and
cyber-intelligence agency GCHQ in 2023.
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A general view of the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence
Service, MI6, in London, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin
Cheung, file)
Moore, an Oxford-educated former diplomat, fit the 007 mold like a
Savile Row suit. But in recent years MI6 has worked to increase
diversity, broadening its recruitment process from the traditional
“tap on the shoulder” at an elite university. The agency’s website
stresses its family-friendly flexible working policy and goal of
recruiting “talented people from all backgrounds.”
Moore suggested he would like his successor to be a woman. He wrote
on X in 2023 that he would “help forge women’s equality by working
to ensure I’m the last C selected from an all-male shortlist.”
Like many things about MI6, also known as the Secret Intelligence
Service, the process of choosing a new chief took place out of
public view. It began with the country’s top civil servant writing
to government departments in March asking them to put forward
candidates. The job was open to applicants from other intelligence
agencies, the civil service, the diplomatic service, the armed
forces or the police.
In the end, MI6 opted for an internal candidate with a 25-year
career in espionage, a degree in anthropology from Cambridge
University — where she was on the women's rowing team — and
expertise in cutting-edge technology.
“At a time of global instability and emerging security threats,
where technology is power and our adversaries are working ever
closer together, Blaise will ensure the U.K. can tackle these
challenges head on to keep Britain safe and secure at home and
abroad,” said Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who oversees MI6.
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