Dame Stella Rimington

A pioneering female figure, Dame Stella Rimington is a revered figure throughout the security industry. Renowned for her role as the first female Director General of MI5, Stella defined history with her presence in the security service. Now a prolific fiction author, Stella is also hired as a cyber security speaker, detailing her expertise on how she and her team protected the country from the prying eyes and hands of the country’s most malicious criminals.

In 1965, Stella and her husband travelled to India after he was offered a posting as the First Secretary for the British Commission in New Delhi. Within two years of being in India, Stella was offered the position of First Secretary at the High Commission, quickly discovering her husband was in fact a representative of MI5. Returning to England, Stella applied for a position at MI5, becoming the Assistant Director of the Group on Subversion in Public Life. She was later promoted to become the Deputy Director General, before becoming the Director General in 1992. After overseeing a public relations campaign to improve the openness of MI5, Stella retired from the service in 1996.

After her retirement, Stella has worked as a Non-Executive Director of the BG Group and Marks & Spencer, alongside forging a reputation as a talented non-fiction author. In 2001, Stella published her autobiography, titled Open Secret: The Autobiography of the Former Director-General of MI5. She is also the author of the Liz Carlyle books, including the titles At Risk, Secret Asset, The Moscow Sleepers, Breaking Covers and The Geneva Trap. She has also worked as Chair of the Judges of the Man Booker Prize 2011 and was awarded an Honorary Degree of Social Science from Nottingham Trent University, recognising her work in making the secret service more open.

Now hired as a cyber security speaker, Dame Stella is revered for her expertise in keeping the country’s most sensitive information safe from the eyes of criminals. Transferring her knowledge from her years of service in MI5, Stella educates audiences on how they can protect their digital assets and data from cyberattacks. With previous experience in counter-espionage and counter-terrorism, there is little about security that Stella does not know. Having formerly spoken at the RSA Conference and InfoSec 2017, don’t miss out on an informative speech on security from Dame Stella Rimington today.