Blaise Metreweli

Blaise Florence Metreweli CMG (born 30 July 1977)^[1] is a British civil servant and director general of technology and innovation in MI6. She is scheduled to take over as Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service ("C") on 1 October 2025, following the retirement of Sir Richard Moore from the Service. Upon assuming office she will be the first woman chief of MI6.

Metreweli, together with her siblings, spent part of her childhood in Hong Kong.^[2] She attended Westminster School in London,^[3] where she was captain of the school.^[4] She then studied anthropology at the University of Cambridge,^[5] graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from Pembroke College in 1998.^[6][7][8] At Cambridge, she—alongside future Olympians Sarah Winckless,^[9] Francesca Zino,^[10] and Alison Mowbray^[11]—was a member of the Cambridge University Women's Boat Club 1997 Blue Boat crew that won that year's Women's Boat Race.^[12]

Metreweli's father, Constantine Metreweli, was born Constantine Dobrowolski, the son of Nazi collaborator Constantine Dobrowolski, in Snovsk in the Chernigov Oblast of the Nazi-occupied Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1943. He came to England with his mother, who then married David Metreweli in Yorkshire in 1947.^[2][13] After attending The Latymer School, the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, he became a physician and radiologist, and was chair of diagnostic radiology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He also trained in the British Army, and did a medical residency in Riyadh from 1982 to 1985.^[14][8] He took the surname Metreweli, which is of Georgian origin, from his stepfather.^[2] After the Daily Mail broke the story about Metreweli's paternal grandfather in June 2025, following the announcement that Metreweli was going to be head of MI6, the Foreign Office stated that she had never known him and that her complex Eastern European heritage had "contributed to her commitment to prevent conflict and protect the British public from modern threats from today's hostile states, as the next chief of MI6".^[13]

Metreweli joined MI6 in 1999,^[8] and "spent much of her early career in the Middle East, at a time when Britain was involved militarily in Afghanistan and Iraq".^[15] Since that time, she has worked continuously as an intelligence officer,^[16] including director-level roles at MI5.^[17][18] Metreweli's roles in intelligence included senior roles in the Middle East focused on counterterrorism, and have required that she address state threats against a background of complex geopolitical issues, including China's biometric surveillance and cyberattacks by Russia.^[8] From 2000 until 2003 Metreweli was Second Secretary for Economic in Dubai, for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.^[1]

During her career Metreweli has given newspaper interviews: to The Telegraph in 2021 (under the code name "Director K"), and to the Financial Times in 2022 (under the pseudonym "Ada").^[15][19] As of December 2021 she was on secondment as Head of Hostile States Counterintelligence ("Director K") to MI5.^[20][21] As of June 2025, Metreweli was Director General of Technology and Innovation ("Q") at MI6,^{[21][18][17][8]} At that time, and for the first time, three of the four MI6 directors-general were women.^[19][22]

In June 2025, Metreweli was announced as the next chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), following Sir Richard Moore when he retires in autumn 2025.^[23][5] She will take office in September or October 2025.^[21][24] There were four candidates for chief of MI6, three from the British intelligence agencies, and Barbara Woodward from the Foreign Office.^[25] Metreweli is the first female head of MI6, who is known as "C". As chief of MI6, she will become the only publicly named member of the service.^[16] She will be the third chief to have studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge.^[15]

Metreweli was appointed a Companion of the Order of St. Michael & St. George (CMG) in the King's Birthday Honours for 2024, where she was listed as "Director General, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office" with a citation of "For services to British Foreign Policy".^[26][27]

Metreweli is fluent in Arabic.^[15] She has children,^[20][21] and takes part in masters rowing,^[15][25] rowing in the 2024 and 2025 veterans boat races between Oxford and Cambridge.^[28]