The UK prime minister announced Metreweli as the new chief of the UK's foreign intelligence service on Sunday (15 June).
While other intelligence agencies, including MI5 and GCHQ, have had female leaders, Metreweli's appointment marks the end of MI6’s male-only leadership streak. The 47-year-old career intelligence officer, who joined the agency in 1999 and worked her way up, is due to take the helm in the autumn.
Talking to HR magazine, Amy Leigh Looper, founder of Resilience Growth Coaching, described Metreweli's appointment as “a strategic signal that leadership is evolving”. She continued: “Her rise shows that emotional intelligence, tech fluency and resilience are as vital as field experience. It tells women in security: your voice is essential.”
But for HR, this milestone brings responsibility, said Samantha Lancashire, founder of educational consultancy Creating Lightbulb Moments: “What does real support look like when someone’s the first of their kind in the room?
Read more: The importance of HR initiatives in supporting women in leadership
“The pressure’s different, the landscape’s different, so our support should be too. Having a woman at the helm changes what feels possible. But HR’s job is to make sure the change actually sticks.”
Lucy Kallin, executive director EMEA for workplace equity campaign Catalyst, agreed. She told HR magazine: “Often, the focus is on attracting women, but HR must ask 'what is it really like to work here as a woman?' Lasting progress will come when inclusion is embedded into every corner of workplace culture, so everyone has the opportunity to succeed.”
That means tackling challenges like loneliness, advised Viviane Paxinos, CEO of AllBright, a collective of women in business: “HR can connect pioneering leaders with others. This creates safe spaces where leaders can admit when they don't understand something that everyone else seems to take for granted. The key is normalising the learning curve rather than expecting pioneers to figure it out alone.”
Women at the top also need help to navigate “systems that weren’t designed with us in mind", Paxinos continued: “HR can focus on three critical areas. First, address the confidence gap that emerges from years of women being questioned more than their male counterparts. This isn't about fixing women, it's about recognising the impact of different treatment.
“Second, create sponsorship, not just mentorship. Women get plenty of advice but often lack advocates in rooms where decisions are made. Third, women are more likely to need career flexibility but they shouldn't pay a leadership penalty for it.”
