Anne Keast-Butler is the Director of GCHQ the UK’s Intelligence, Cyber and Security Agency. Appointed in May 2023, she is the seventeenth person to hold role and succeeded Sir Jeremy Fleming.

Anne joined GCHQ from MI5, where she was Deputy Director General, responsible for MI5’s operational, investigative, and protective security work. This has included MI5’s – and allies’ - preparation for and response to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

In her previous Director General role, Anne was Director General Strategy, leading the enabling functions that support MI5’s operational activities.

Prior to this, Anne spent two years on secondment to GCHQ as Head of Counter Terrorism and Serious Organised Crime and has also spent part of the last decade on secondment in Whitehall. Whilst there, she helped to launch the National Cyber Security Programme. During her thirty years in the national security field, Anne has held several key operational roles in MI5.

Anne grew up in Cambridge and holds a degree in mathematics from Merton College, Oxford. She is married with three children and enjoys spending time with family and friends and walking her dogs.