PodcastFormer UK ambassador to Turkey named as new MI6 spy chief
Richard Moore, who served as British ambassador to Turkey from January 2014 to December 2017, has been named as the next chief of MI6. A fluent Turkish speaker, he studied at Oxford and first joined MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, in 1987.
Duvar English / Anadolu Agency
A former British ambassador to Turkey has been appointed to the helm of the government's secret intelligence service, MI6, on July 19.
Richard Moore, a political director at the Foreign Office, will take over his new post in the Fall.
He served as UK envoy to Ankara between January 2014 and December 2017.
Moore will succeed Sir Alex Younger, who has been chief of the spy agency for the past six years.
Born in Libya, Moore was Director for Europe, Latin America and Globalisation from 2010 to 2012 and Director for Programmes and Change from 2008 to 2010.
He has had postings in Vietnam, Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia.
The MI6 is Britain's secret service dealing with foreign threats to the UK and gathering intelligence outside the country.