Former MI5 director general Dame Stella Rimington to keynote RSA Conference 2017

Dame Stella Rimington will be part of the keynote speaker lineup for RSA Conference 2017 in San Francisco, CA. Dame Stella was formerly Director General of the Security Service (MI5) in the U.K. – the first woman to take the post and the first Director General to be publicly named.

“We are honored to have such a prestigious member of the British Security Service, who blazed a successful career to achieve tremendous success in a male dominated world, on our keynote stage at RSA Conference 2017,” said Linda Gray Martin, Director & General Manager, RSA Conference. “Dame Stella’s discussion aligns government, enterprise and consumer interests and provides the depth of insight that can only be experienced at RSA Conference.”

Beginning in 1965, Dame Stella worked in all three main fields of the Security Service – counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism, becoming successively Director of all three branches. Dame Stella held the post of Director General from 1992 until her retirement in April 1996.

She is known to billions of people worldwide as the role model for the character of “M” played by Dame Judi Dench in the James Bond 007 films. Her autobiography Open Secret has been followed by a series of acclaimed thriller novels featuring MI5 agent Liz Carlyle.

Made a Dame Commander of the Bath in the 1996 New Year Honours List, she has received Honorary Degrees from Nottingham and Exeter Universities. She was formerly Non-Executive Director of Marks & Spencer Plc and BG Group Plc, Chairman of the Institute of Cancer Research and Trustee of the Royal Marsden Hospital NHS Trust. Dame Stella was Honorary Air Commodore of 7006 (VR) Intelligence Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force and a Trustee of the RAF Museum.