Richard Moore (diplomat)

Richard Peter Moore, CMG (born 9 May 1963) is a British civil servant, currently the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and formerly the Director General, Political, at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office,[1][2][3][4] and previously the British Ambassador to Turkey.[1][3][4] In 2020, Moore became the first member of the British intelligence agencies to use social media publicly.

Richard Moore
CMG
Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service
Assumed office
1 October 2020
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded bySir Alex Younger
Director General, Political at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
In office
April 2018 – 30 September 2020
MonarchElizabeth II
Preceded byKaren Pierce
Succeeded bySir Tim Barrow
British Ambassador to Turkey
In office
January 2014 – December 2017
MonarchElizabeth II
Preceded byDavid Reddaway
Succeeded byDominick Chilcott
Personal details
Born (1963-05-09) 9 May 1963
Tripoli, Libya
Spouse(s)Margaret Patricia Isabel Martin (Maggie)
Alma materWorcester College, Oxford (BA)
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Stanford Graduate School of Business
WebsiteTwitter Profile

Education

Moore attended St George's College, Weybridge, an independent school in Surrey.[3] Afterwards, he studied PPE at Worcester College, Oxford where he gained a bachelor's degree.[1][3] He then won a Kennedy Scholarship to study at the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University.[1][3] In 2007, he attended the Stanford Executive Program.[1][3]

Career

Moore's notable career has been in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and in Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service.[3] He has had postings in Vietnam in 1988, Turkey in 1990 and from 1991 to 1992, Pakistan from 1995 to 1998, Iran from 1992 to 1995 and Malaysia from 2001 to 2005 where he undertook a variety of roles, including working for the Secret Intelligence Service.[1][3][5] He was the section head of the Security Policy Group at the FCDO from 1998 to 2001 and the Deputy Director of the Middle East from 2005 to 2008.[3]

Moore, more recently, was Director for Programmes and Change from 2008 to 2010, and Director for Europe, Latin America and Globalization from 2010 to 2012.[1][3]

Moore's first prominent appointment was as the British Ambassador to Turkey. He held this post for three years, from 2014 to 2017.[1][3][4] He spent a short period of time working as Deputy National Security Advisor (Intelligence, Security and Resilience) in 2018.[3][4] He held the appointment of Director-General, Political in the FCDO from 2018 until August 2020.[1][3][4] On the 29 July 2020, it was announced that Moore would become the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in autumn 2020.[5][6] He took up this position on the 1 October of the same year.[4]

Moore was the first member of the British secret service to openly use Twitter, when on 2 October 2020 his tweets from his first day as Chief of MI6 made the news for their humorous hashtags and emojis.[7][8]

On 5 May 2021 Moore announced that MI6 had begun "green spying", to secretly investigate if foreign nations were genuinely keeping to their emission reduction commitments in order to tackle climate change.[9][10]

Personal life

Richard Moore was born in Tripoli, Libya on the 9 May 1963 to John Robert Moore and (Norah) Patricia Moore (née Buckley).[3] In 1985, he married Margaret Patricia Isabel Martin (Maggie), with whom he has had a son and a daughter.[3]

Moore's grandfather Jack Buckley served as a soldier of the Irish Republican Army from 1916 to 1922 in Cork, Ireland, and was awarded a medal by Sinn Fein for fighting against British rule.[11]

In his spare time, Moore enjoys: golf, watching cricket and rugby, reading, TV, travel, hiking, scuba-diving, Turkish carpets and porcelain, and visiting historical sites.[1][3] He is fluent in Turkish.[12]

References
  1. "Richard Moore CMG". HM Government. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  2. British Embassy Beirut. "FCO Political Director in Lebanon, discusses security". HM Government. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  3. "Moore, Richard Peter". Who's Who 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  4. "Richard Moore @UKPolDirRichard". Twitter. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  5. Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Dominic Raab. "Appointment of the new Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)". HM Government. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  6. "MI6: Richard Moore named as new head of Secret Intelligence Service". BBC News. 29 July 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  7. "MI6 chief marks first day in office with emoji-laden tweets". the Guardian. 2020-10-02. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
  8. "Tweeting MI6 chief Richard Moore reveals modern face of not-so-secret service". The National. 2020-10-02. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
  9. "MI6 'green spying' on biggest polluters to ensure nations keep climate change promises". Sky News. Retrieved 2021-05-31.
  10. "The world is hot enough: MI6 has started spying on climate polluters". New Scientist. Retrieved 2021-05-31.
  11. says, Pete (2020-08-03). "Grandfather of new MI6 boss was IRA fighter who won medals in war with Britain". intelNews.org. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
  12. "Ex-Ambassador Made Head of British Intelligence Service MI6". The New York Times. Associated Press. 29 July 2020. Archived from the original on 30 July 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
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