Britain Names MI5 Deputy as First Female GCHQ Boss

Facts

• Anne Keast-Butler, the current Deputy Director of the British spy agency MI5, has been named the next director of GCHQ, becoming the first woman to lead the UK's intelligence, cyber, and security agency.¹
• Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who made the appointment, said Keast-Butler, who will succeed Jeremy Fleming after his six-year tenure, "will  use her vast experience to help keep the British public safe."²
• According to the Foreign Office, she grew up in Cambridge, holds a degree in mathematics from Merton College, Oxford, and is married with three children.¹
• Before her role as deputy director, she spent two years on secondment to GCHQ as head of counter-terrorism and serious organized crime, as well as in Whitehall, where she helped launch the National Cyber Security Programme.³
• Keast-Butler, however, isn't the first woman in UK history to lead an intelligence agency. Stella Rimington became the first woman to lead MI5 in 1992 and was said to have inspired the character "M," head of Britain's foreign intelligence service known as MI6, in the James Bond movies.²
• GCHQ, or Government Communications Headquarters, is primarily based in the town of Cheltenham. During World War Two, it was based at Bletchley Park, where it was responsible for breaking Nazi Germany's Enigma codes.⁴

Sources: ¹Guardian, ²Reuters, ³Independent, and ⁴The National.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Metro. This announcement only adds to the prestigious history of the GCHQ. Keast-Butler — who will bring with her years of high-level and successful experience in the intelligence field — is not only prepared to protect Britain's national security, but she will bring a refreshing and diverse vision into a historically male-dominated organization.
• Narrative B, as provided by Medium. Keast-Butler is undoubtedly qualified, and in celebrating her new role, attention should be focused on her accomplishments and skills rather than her immutable characteristics. The problem with the current push for diversity hires is that they often lead to quotas, which can not only hurt the organization hiring the individual but also leave that person wondering whether they were hired for their talents or their race or gender.