Blaise Metreweli

Blaise Florence Metreweli (born 30 July 1977) is a British intelligence officer and civil servant, currently Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), following the retirement of Sir Richard Moore. She is the first female chief of MI6.

Early life and education Blaise Florence Metreweli was born on 30 July 1977. where she took A-Levels in Russian, economics, history, and art. She then studied anthropology at Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA degree from the University of Cambridge in 1998. Francesca Zino, and Alison Mowbray, she was a member of the Cambridge University Women's Boat Club Blue Boat crew that won the 1997 Women's Boat Race against Oxford University. In the same year, Metreweli was part of the rowing crew that won the headship of the 1997 May Bumps for Pembroke College against other Cambridge college crews. 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. 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". including director-level roles at MI5.

In June 2025, Metreweli was announced as the next chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), following Sir Richard Moore when he retired in autumn 2025.

Recognition 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".