Sir Richard Dearlove

Renowned Expert on Global Intelligence and Security

BIG IDEAS

• An Insider’s View on Global Security
  The work of the intelligence and security agencies has never been more important to our day-to-day safety, never of greater concern to citizens. Sir Richard, without indiscretion, enhances our understanding of the complexities of emerging threats and our response to them by describing their geopolitical context and the instruments we are now developing to confront them.

SNAPSHOT BIO

Sir Richard Dearlove has established himself as a scarce but in-demand commentator on the new century’s security threats. Only since his retirement as the Chief of British Intelligence in 2004 has he been able to dispose of his hard-won knowledge and experience for the benefit of private audiences. He still keeps an inquisitive media at arms length and refuses to write about his extraordinary career.

Sir Richard joined British Intelligence as a very young front-line officer in 1966 and worked extensively in Africa, behind the Iron Curtain, and in Europe. He experienced the Cold War at first hand and established his reputation quickly as a skillful spymaster. In his recent book, George Tenet describes him as the "spies spy."

Dearlove served as the British Intelligence representative in Washington during the presidency of George H.W. Bush, moving on to fill all of the key senior management roles in MI6, before his appointment in 1999 as ‘C’ (as the Chief of MI6 is known in British Government circles). He sensed early the changing nature of Intelligence work in the post-Cold War world and was radical in his approach to its restructuring, particularly in countering the growing terrorist threat.

At the center of the infamous leaked ‘Downing Street Memo,’ Sir Richard has had an insider’s view of key events and developments – 9/11, the continuing threat from Al Qaeda, Iraq, Afghanistan, the disarmament of Libya, the Iranian nuclear program—and he was of course an interlocutor of some of the leading players. His 38 years in Intelligence, and more than a decade in a leadership role, have given him a unique perspective on this closed and misinterpreted world.

Sir Richard is currently the Master of Pembroke College Cambridge, founded in 1347, one of Cambridge University’s leading teaching and research Colleges. He advises widely on risk and national security. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of AIG, senior advisor to the Monitor Group and Chairman of Ascot Underwriting at Lloyd’s of London. He was knighted by the Queen in 2001.