Ottawa, Ontario-Los Espías of the real life of Great Britain have finally reached James Bond. Mi6 has designated his first boss.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Sunday that Blaise Metreweli will be the next head of the United Kingdom’s foreign intelligence agency, and the first woman to take office since its foundation in 1909. She is currently the director of Technology and Innovation of the MI6, the equivalent of the real world of the Master of Bond Gadget Q.
A career intelligence officer, Metreweli, 47, goes from shadows to light as the only employee of the MI6 whose name is made public. She said: “I am proud and honest that they ask me to lead my service.”
Starmer said that the “historical event” comes in a moment “when the work of our intelligence services has never been more vital.
“The United Kingdom faces threats on an unprecedented scale, whether they are aggressors that send their spies ships to our computer waters or pirates whose sophisticated cybernetic plots seek to interrupt our public services,” he said.
Starmer made the announcement when he arrived at the Canadian province of Alberta for a group of seven leaders.
Metreweli takes over the MI6 when the agency faces increasing challenges of states, including China and Russia, whose use of cybernetic tools, espionage and influence of operations threatens global stability and British interests, even when it remains alert against terrorist threats.
Metreweli is the first woman to get the main job, known as C, instead of M, the fictional chief of the MI6 of the Thrillers 007. M was played on the screen by Judi Dench in seven Bond films from the 1990s.
She will take her post in the fall, replacing Richard Moore, who has kept the job for five years.
The other two main intelligence agencies in Great Britain have already destroyed the glass ceiling of the spy world. MI5, the National Security Service, was directed by Stella Rimington from 1992 to 1996 and Eliza Manningham-Buller from 2002 to 2007. Anne Kaest-Butler became head of the Electronic and Cyber Agency GCHQ in 2023.
Moore, a former diplomatic educated in Oxford, conforms to mold 007 as a Savile Row suit. But in recent years, Mi6 has worked to increase diversity, expanding its recruitment process of the traditional “shoulder touch” at an elite university. The agency’s website emphasizes its family flexible work policy and the objective of recruiting “talented people of all origins.”
Moore suggested that he would like his successor to be a woman. He wrote in X in 2023 that “it would help to forge the equality of women working to make sure it is the last C selected of a short list for men.”
Like many things about MI6, also known as the Secret Intelligence Service, the process of choosing a new boss took place out of public view. He began with the main officials of the country who write to government departments in March asking them to present candidates. The work was open to applicants from other intelligence agencies, civil service, diplomatic service, armed forces or police.
In the end, Mi6 opted for an internal candidate with a 25 -year career in espionage, a title in anthropology of the University of Cambridge, where he was in the female remote team, and experience in avant -garde technology.
“In a moment of global instability and emerging security threats, where technology is power and our adversaries are working more and more together, Blaise will ensure that the United Kingdom can face these challenges immediately to keep Great Britain safe and safely at home and abroad,” said foreign secretary David Lammy, who supervises the MI6.
