Blaise Metreweli, the first woman to lead the UK MI6 spy service, is a self-deprecated “geek” who was appointed because the intelligence interface faces challenges in cyber plot and AI.
Actress Judi Dench has played the head of MI6 Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in the James Bond movie series for many years, but in fact, so far, all 17 leaders are men.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Sunday that the Equator would be the 18th director of the British foreign intelligence agency.
Like her ex, she will be called “C” instead of “M”, because Danger is called “c” in the movie based on Ian Fleming’s bold fictional agent.
The head of MI6 is the only public member of the organization and reports directly to the Foreign Secretary.
Very little is known about the 47-year-old Metropolitan, and he will take over as outgoing MI6 chief Richard Moore.
Downing Street said in a statement that currently, she is the Director General of MI6 – known as “Q” – responsible for the technology and innovation of the service.
Metreweli is described as a career intelligence officer, who joined the service in 1999 and studied anthropology at the University of Cambridge.
“She is an experienced, trusted, successful operational officer. She is widely respected,” Alex Younger, a former head of MI6, told the BBC.
“She has thought deeply about how we can thrive in the connection between humans and machines.
He added: “She has a plan. I think she knows how to make it. That’s how MI6 stays at the forefront.”
The future spy boss was born in a family in Eastern Europe (Metreweli), which originated from the Georgian name Metreveli, and was part of the Cambridge rowing fleet that defeated Oxford in 1997.
According to the British government, she joined MI6 in 1999 as a field official, “and she spent most of her career in operational roles in the Middle East and Europe.”
‘historic’
The government said that Zhongmetreweli was also staying in the domestic intelligence agency MI5 for a while and as a director, he did not provide any further details.
According to British media, she speaks Arabic.
The Financial Times interviewed her in 2022 and wrote an article about female spies, initially citing her under a pseudonym to encourage other women to join the intelligence service.
She described herself as a “geek” and said she always wanted to be a spy.
It was revealed that she grew up abroad, loved learning encryption technology when she was young, and had at least one child outside the UK.
Metreweli asserts that in the male-dominated intellectual world, women have certain useful skills.
“The moment you decide to become an agent, you have to do thousands of risk-based calculations, but you are not sure how to react emotionally,” she said.
“No manners. Ironically, it became a land without men. In that space, women are really good at finding common ground. We are restrictive.”
After MI5 appointed its first female chief, she was appointed for more than thirty years.
Stella Rimington held the position from 1992 to 1996, followed by Eliza Manningham-Buller, from 2002 to 2007.
British intelligence and security organization GCHQ appointed its first female chief Anne Keast-Butler in 2023.
Starmer called Metreweli’s appointment “historic”.
“The UK is facing threats of unprecedented scale – whether it is the invaders, their spy ships brought to our waters or hackers, their exquisite cyber plots trying to undermine our public services,” he said.
