AT the end of July, I retire from GCHQ after a career of

nearly 36 years and over five years as the director. Although

GCHQ is Cheltenham's largest employer, and one of the largest

in the county, it is pretty mysterious for those who do not

work there.

So I am very pleased to have this opportunity to offer some

personal reflections on GCHQ past and present and on my own

time there.

I joined GCHQ in 1972 in the middle of the Cold War, a

struggle in which GCHQ played a major part.

At that time, there were still people there who had worked

at Bletchley Park during the Second World War; their

contribution was still secret then, but is now well known.

Today GCHQ is again playing a vital role in countering

today's biggest threats to national security – helping the

fight against terrorism and supporting British troops wherever

they are deployed.

The change in GCHQ that has been most visible to Cheltenham

residents has, of course, been the move into our new Benhall

building (the Doughnut) and the replacement of much of our old

accommodation by houses and the Oakley Sainsbury's.

For many of our old hands, the experience of buying

groceries on the spot where we had our first recruitment

interview still feels pretty odd.

The Doughnut is important as a building, but the changes in

recent years go much deeper than that.

The GCHQ I first knew was very much a Cold War

organisation.

We were very hierarchical, with a rather rigid structure and

limited internal communications. This is not a criticism – the

work we did during that period was excellent, and our response

to crises such as the Falklands War could be first class.

The organisation was a product of its time, and well suited

to the job it had to do. But by the 1990s it became clear that

a different approach was needed for a very different world,

with volatile and global threats and the arrival of the

internet.

Since then the organisation has been transformed almost

beyond recognition.

The accommodation is a big part of this. Rather than a large

number of mostly old-fashioned and cellular buildings, most

people are now under one roof in modern open-plan offices – no

one, including me, has a personal office.

But as a result of all the work we have done on our culture,

our leadership, and the way we work, attitudes and behaviour

have changed as well.

We are far less concerned about rank and hierarchy,

information and knowledge move around more freely, and we are

much better able to respond to the urgent needs of today's

world. Our targets have changed as well, of course.

The Cold War focus was on the Soviet Union. Now our biggest

area of work by far is our contribution to

counter-terrorism.

And support to deployed British forces has become a major

activity. One of the many things I am proud of about GCHQ is

the number of people who volunteer to serve in Iraq and

Afghanistan, to work alongside the military in conditions that

are always very uncomfortable and often dangerous.

In that part of our business that protects government

communications and data, we are now at the heart of efforts to

protect government networks from intrusion and attack.

I am sometimes asked what a typical day in GCHQ is like.

It's an impossible question, really, because every day is

different, and because there are so many different jobs being

done. But one constant feature for some of us is the 8.30am

briefing on current events. The staff working overnight on the

24-hour watch bring us up to date with the latest intelligence

stories, and we look at what is happening in the world and what

we need to be doing about it.

This is an important reflection of our mindset – we are

supporting the Government and our armed forces on a daily and

hourly basis.

Although we are based in Cheltenham, we have to spend a lot

of time meeting and talking to our customers in Whitehall and

elsewhere – the people who use the intelligence and information

we produce.

So there is a great deal of travel between Cheltenham and

London. My own week revolves around Wednesday meetings – the

Cabinet Secretary brings together the heads of all the

government departments for an hour in the morning, and in the

afternoon the Joint Intelligence Committee meets to agree the

week's intelligence assessments that will go to Ministers.

And much of my time is spent working with the heads of the

other agencies, MI5 and MI6, to ensure that the three

organisations are working ever more closely together –

something that is essential in today's fight against

terrorism.

Alongside these internal changes, our public profile has

also changed dramatically. In 1972, we did not own up to our

intelligence role – government policy was not to admit that the

UK intercepted foreign communications in peacetime.

That did not change until 1983, after the former GCHQ

employee Geoffrey Prime was convicted of spying for the KGB –

an event that was a great shock to us all.

Since then we have steadily become more open – not, of

course, about the detail of our work, but about aspects that

are of genuinely wider interest, such as our experiences in

managing radical change and in moving an enterprise of several

thousand people across town.

The other side of the coin of openness is our greater

readiness now to take in ideas and advice from the outside

world. We are still predominantly, and I believe rightly, a

career organisation.

But we now welcome a significant number of people into GCHQ

in mid-career, including members of our board, and for the last

six years we have had three non-executive board members whose

experience in industry and elsewhere has been vital in guiding

our development in the last few years.

An important aspect of our public profile is our engagement

with the local community. We used to be very isolated,

operating behind our barbed wire and keeping the world at bay.

This construction of our new building forced us to become more

open – we had to engage in the planning process, and we were

keen to behave as “good neighbours” during a period when being

one of our neighbours involved lots of dust, noise and

disruption. One thing has led to another, and our approach to

the community is now much more open, and I believe much

healthier.

It has always been true that many of our staff have been

involved as individuals in community and charity activities,

but now we engage as GCHQ. This includes work with schools on

IT and languages, and support to community work in Hester's

Way, Springbank and Oakley.

I am very pleased with what we now feel able to do, and hope

it will continue.

We have always relied on the support we get from the

Cheltenham community, including the local newspapers, even when

they knew almost nothing about us.

Today I hope and believe that we have a fuller relationship

in which we are able to reflect back some of that support.

What will I remember after I leave? Too many things to list,

of course, and much that I can't describe here. But there are

some very vivid memories from recent years. Being summoned to

Robin Cook's office the day after the 1997 election to be given

instructions to negotiate the return of the national trade

unions to GCHQ; escorting the Queen round the Doughnut on the

day of the official opening; rushing to London on July 7, 2005,

blue lights flashing, to attend the Prime Minister's emergency

meeting after the London bombings; flying over Afghanistan in

an RAF helicopter that had once belonged to the Soviet Air

Force; ducking for cover in Basra and Baghdad as rockets landed

not far way; sitting in London's Guildhall at the Lord Mayor's

banquet for President Sarkozy; and on and on.

Above all, I will remember the people – my colleagues and

friends. In 36 years, a lot has changed. But some things

haven't. Our people are skilful, deeply committed and often

passionate about their work.

They do the country proud. And I am enormously proud to have

worked as one of them for a full career, and to have had the

privilege of leading them for my last five years.

I wish my successor, Iain Lobban, every success, and as much

pleasure as I have had in the post he is about to occupy.