1. Sir Alexander William Younger was born on 4 July 1963 and is a British intelligence officer who served as the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, from 2014 to 2020.
23 Facts About Alex Younger
1. 2.
Alex Younger was educated at Marlborough College before graduating from the University of St Andrews with a degree in economics.
3.
Alex Younger was commissioned into the Royal Scots on 5 September 1986 as a second lieutenant.
4.
Alex Younger was granted seniority in the rank of second lieutenant from 9 April 1983.
5.
Alex Younger was promoted to lieutenant, which was backdated to 5 September 1986, and was granted seniority from 9 April 1985.
6.
Alex Younger was promoted to captain on 5 April 1989.
7.
Alex Younger joined the service at the same time as Richard Tomlinson, who in his book The Big Breach, portrayed him as "Spencer", a St Andrews graduate and former Scots Guard who was recruited while working for the Halo Trust in Afghanistan.
8.
Alex Younger served in the Balkans during the Yugoslav Wars, Vienna, Dubai and in Afghanistan overseeing all SIS operations in country.
9.
Alex Younger became deputy director in 2012, before being nominated as Chief in October 2014, succeeding Sir John Sawers on his retirement.
10.
In 2020 Alex Younger described continuing Russian ambition to subvert Western democratic process through disinformation, which he ascribed to Russian fear of the quality of Western institutions and alliances.
11.
Alex Younger advocated strong defences but warned that we should not magnify the effect of these relatively crude and unsophisticated attacks by exaggerating their effect.
12.
In December 2018, Alex Younger raised concerns about Huawei's role in the UK's new 5G mobile network.
13.
Alex Younger said that this would have significant security consequences that the West should anticipate and organise against.
14.
Alex Younger called for the West to refocus on its own strengths: the quality of its alliances and innovation, rather than simply lamenting the rise of a competitor.
15.
In December 2018 Alex Younger gave a rare speech at the University of St Andrews, making emphasis of the need for fourth-generation espionage and fusing human skills with technical innovation.
16.
Alex Younger said he was perplexed by what has happened and that there were some frank conversations ahead between Britain and the UAE.
17.
On 16 February 2019, when interviewed by the British press, Alex Younger was asked about the wives of British ISIS fighters stuck in Syria after the fall of the caliphate.
18.
Alex Younger acknowledged their plight, but warned that such people would have acquired skills and connections that made them dangerous to the public.
19.
In September 2020, speaking to the Financial Times, Alex Younger was asked if the UK had wrongly prioritised counter terrorism at the expense of coverage of Russia and China.
20.
Alex Younger said that he supported the government's very low tolerance for instability driven by terrorism because it was such a gross violation of social norms.
21.
Alex Younger described the recent destruction of the ISIS caliphate in Syria as a "High Point", but he warned that terrorism had now become more autonomous and spontaneous, and remained lethal.
22.
Alex Younger married Sarah Hopkins in Borgo a Mozzano, Tuscany, in 1993.
23.
Alex Younger was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 2011 Birthday Honours and Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to the United Kingdom.