Britain's Secret Intelligence Service chief Sir John Sawers Photo: REUTERS
His official title is “chief” of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), normally shortened to “C,” and he still uses green ink to sign documents in a tradition begun by the first chief 101 years ago.
The service is steeped in both history and secrecy - it celebrated its centenary by publishing the first official history but the book only goes up to 1949.
In giving the first speech by a serving chief of MI6, Sir John will be ruffling a few feathers, just as he did when photographs of him playing Frisbee on the beech in his swimming trunks were leaked from his wife’s Facebook page.
Although he trained with MI6 at the beginning of his career, he spent the time since then as a career diplomat.
His involvement in the policy issues around the Iraq war means he has already appeared in public giving evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry.
Despite the arrival of an outsider, Sir John has made friends quickly within MI6 by backing his officers and understanding the traditions and culture of the service, even as it turned to new challenges.
Born in Warwick, Sir John was brought up in a family of five children in Bath and educated at the City of Bath Boys' School, where he still holds the 440-yard hurdles school record.
He studied physics and philosophy at the University of Nottingham and spent periods at the universities of St Andrews, Witwatersrand in South Africa and Harvard in the US.
His interests include theatre, trekking and sport, especially tennis and cycling. His wife Shelley is a teacher and they have three grown-up children.
Sir John worked as a foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair between 1999 and 2001 during the Kosovo conflict and Northern Ireland Peace Process.
From there he moved to be ambassador to Cairo and then, for three months after the invasion of Iraq, as a special envoy in Baghdad, during which time he argued against the disastrous policy of dismissing members of the ruling Ba’ath party.
He returned to London where he served as political director at the Foreign Office for four years at the height of the Iraq conflict before going to New York as ambassador to the United Nations.
He replaced Sir John Scarlett who retired in November last year.
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