Anne Keast-Butler

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 the role and succeeded Sir Jeremy Fleming.

Career
Keast-Butler 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 the allies' – preparation for and response to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

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

Prior to this, Keast-Butler 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.

Personal life
Keast-Butler grew up in Cambridge. Her father was a consultant ophthalmologist with academic roles at the University of Cambridge. She earned a degree in mathematics from Merton College, Oxford.

She is married, with three children.