Anne Keast-Butler will be the first female director of Britain’s cyber intelligence spy agency GCHQ, it has been announced.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said she will be “the ideal candidate” to succeed Sir Jeremy Fleming and become the 17th director of the Cheltenham-based intelligence agency.
“Anne Keast-Butler has an impressive track recordâ¯at the heart of the UK’s national security network, helping to counter threats posed by terrorists, cybercriminals and malign foreign powers,” Mr Cleverly said on Tuesday.
Sir Jeremy said: “Anne’s appointment is fantastic news for the organisation. I have worked with Anne for decades and think she is a brilliant choice with deep experience of intelligence and security in today’s technology-driven world.”
Ms Keast-Butler’s appointment was made following an all-Government hiring procedure chaired by Cabinet Secretary Simon Case.
“I was privileged to work in GCHQ a few years ago, so I know I am again joining a world-class team of people from diverse backgrounds with a broad range of skills, who share a singular focus on making our country safer, more secure, and more prosperous,” Ms Keast-Butler said.
So who is she and what role was she in previously? Here’s all you need to know.
Who is Anne Keast-Butler?
The current Deputy Director General of the UK’s domestic intelligence service, MI5, Ms Keast-Butler spent two years on secondment to GCHQ. At that time, she was serving as the Head of Counter Terrorism and Serious Organised Crime at the agency.
She then went on to serve as its Director of General Strategy. GCHQ said this meant she was responsible for all enabling functions that supported MI5’s operational activities.
GCHQ, the acronym for Government Communications Headquarters, focuses on the UK’s cybersecurity and keeping the nation safe. It collects intelligence through communications to prevent cyber attacks, terrorism and espionage.
In the past year, the agency has provided intelligence on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, helped to disrupt terror plots and tried to stop ransomware attacks, Ms Keast-Butler said.
She will begin her new role in May.
The Financial Times reports that GCHQ has had 16 chiefs, all of them men, since it was founded in 1919 when it was known as the Government Code and Cypher School.
Ms Keast-Butler will be the first woman to lead a UK intelligence agency since Eliza Manningham-Buller retired from MI5 in 2007.
Ms Keast-Butler, who grew up in Cambridge, earned a degree in mathematics from Merton College, the University of Oxford. She is married with three children.
GCHQ says outside of work, she enjoys spending time with family and walking her dogs.
Anne Keast-Butler’s National Cyber Security Programme work
Ms Keast-Butler also spent a decade in secondment in Whitehall.
She helped to launch the National Cyber Security Programme, which covers the protection of the UK’s critical services from cyber attacks and manages major incidents.
Who was the former director of GCHQ?
Ms Keast Butler’s predecessor, Sir Jeremy, was appointed in 2017.
Before working at GCHQ, he joined MI5 in 1993, where he gained extensive operational, investigative and leadership experience across the full range of national security work.
As MI5’s Assistant Director General, he oversaw its preparations for the London 2012 Olympics. He had led the rewriting and release of the Government's ‘Contest’ counterterrorism strategy. He also helped to shape MI5's reaction to the terrorist attacks in London in 2005.
While at GCHQ, Sir Jeremy oversaw the establishment of the National Cyber Security Centre. This was with the goal of making the UK the safest country in which to live and conduct business online. GCHQ said it has established itself as a global leader in bringing together the Government, business, and other nations to confront cyber threats and educate the public.
With the establishment of a strategic basis in Manchester and an emphasis on diversity and inclusion, Sir Jeremy has presided over a considerable period of expansion for the agency.
The “real long-term threat” to UK national security, Sir Jeremy says, is China, despite the fact that Russia is a more urgent danger. Beijing, he said, was “deploying its ideologies in ways that we think are against our national interests”.
