Alex Younger

Sir Alex Younger    (spook)
Born	4 July 1963
Chief of the SIS In office 1 November 2014 - Present Preceded by John Sawers  Deputy Director of the SIS In office 2012 - 2014

Sir Alex Younger's briefing notes for his first public speech as head of the Secret Intelligence Service contained some of the material supplied by Christopher Steele, according to security sources. Drawing on the alleged hacking carried out by Moscow in the 2016 US presidential election campaign, he warned of the danger facing Britain and Western European allies, and especially in future elections.

In July 2020, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab approved the appointment of Richard Moore to succeed Alex Younger in the Autumn. The outgoing Chief of the SIS said:

"I am delighted by this appointment. Richard is a highly accomplished intelligence officer and we look forward to welcoming him back to the Service."

Background

With a degree in economics, Younger joined SIS in 1991 and served in the Middle East and Afghanistan. He became head of counter intelligence in 2009, in which role he was involved in security for the London Olympics 2012. He became Deputy Director in 2012, before being nominated as Chief in October 2014.

In a leaked list of 160 MI6 agents - which was originally believed to have been released by Richard Tomlinson, although government officials subsequently "acknowledged that the list did not come from Mr Tomlinson" - Alex Younger is mentioned as having been posted to Vienna in 1995.

As of 2015, Younger was paid a salary of between £160,000 and £164,999 by SIS, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.

In 2016 Younger said cyber-attacks, propaganda and subversion from hostile states pose a “fundamental threat” to European democracies including the UK. In a rare speech by an MI6 chief while in office Younger did not specifically name Russia but left no doubt that this was the target of his remarks. Russia has since been accused of interfering in the 2016 US presidential election and there are concerns it could do the same in French and German elections in 2017.

Syria

Sir Alex warns about Russia's actions in Syria

The head of MI6 has accused Russia of trying to turn the Syrian city of Aleppo into a desert… and then 'call it peace'. Sir Alex Younger, who's known as C, was giving his first public speech in the role, and the first ever speech at MI6 headquarters in London. He warned Russia's actions would have a 'tragic' outcome, which could increase the threat to Britain.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Munich Security Conference/2018	12 February 2018	14 February 2018	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 54th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2019	15 February 2019	17 February 2019	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 55th Munich Security Conference, which included "A Spreading Plague" aimed at "identifying gaps and making recommendations to improve the global system for responding to deliberate, high consequence biological events."

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Spy behind Donald Trump 'golden shower' dossier feared president had been 'compromised by foreign power'	Article	10 January 2018	James Law	"It's political rhetoric to call the dossier phoney. The memos are field reports of real interviews that Chris's network conducted and there's nothing phoney about it. We can argue about what's prudent and what's not, but it's not a fabrication."

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