A spymaster is a leader of a group of spies or an intelligence agency.
List of spymasters
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|-
!Name
!When
!Allegiance
!Agency/Organization/Service
|-
|Motojiro Akashi
|1904
|
|Akashi Kikan
|-
|James Bond
|1963
|
|Special Operations Executive
|-
|Lavrentiy Beria
|1938
|
|NKVD
|-
|M
|1927–1940
||MI6
|-
|Wilhelm Canaris
|1935
|
|Abwehr
|-
|Thomas Cromwell
|1533
|
|
|-
|William J. Donovan
|1941
|
|Office of Strategic Services
|-
|Armand Jean du Plessis (Cardinal Richelieu)
|1616
|
|
|-
|Allen Dulles
|1953
|
|Central Intelligence Agency
|-
|L.B. Moerdani
|1952–1988
|
|State Intelligence Agency
|-
|A.M. Hendropriyono
|1945
|
|State Intelligence Agency
|-
|Ali Murtopo
|1945–1978
|
|State Intelligence Agency
|-
|Yoga Sugama
|1942–1989
|
|State Intelligence Agency
|-
|Zhou Enlai
|1928–1932
| Chinese Communist Party
|Special Service section of the Central Committee<br>Urban Work Committee of the Central Committee
|-
|Rafaat Gebril
|1973
|
|General Intelligence Directorate (Egypt)
|-
|Fadhil Barrak
|1976–1989
|
|Iraqi Intelligence Service
|-
|Muhammad al-Khuli
|1970–1987
|
|Air Force Intelligence Directorate
|-
|Ali Mamlouk
|2005–2024
|
|National Security Bureau<br>General Intelligence Directorate (Syria)
|-
|Sándor Goldberger (alias J. Peters)
|1930–1948
|
|Communist Party USA
|-
|Sidney Gottlieb
|1951–1973
|
|Central Intelligence Agency
|-
|Hamid Gul
|1987–1989
|
|Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence
|-
|Javed Nasir
|1992-1993
|
|Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence
|-
|Faiz Hameed
|2019
|
|Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence
|-
|Isser Harel
|1952–1963
|
|Mossad
|-
|Ronnie Kasrils
|1983–1989<br />2004–2008
|<br />
|Umkhonto we Sizwe<br />Minister of Intelligence Services
|-
|David Kimche
|1953–1980
|
|Mossad
|-
|Ivone Kirkpatrick
|1918–1918
|
|British Army, Belgian resistance
|-
|Maxwell Knight
|1924–1930
|
|MI5
|-
|Chee Woh, Leong
|1971–1984
|
|Special Branch
|-
|Dai Li
|1928–1946
|
|National Revolutionary Army
|-
|Colin Hercules Mackenzie
|1940–1946
|
|Special Operations Executive – Force 136
|-
|Tengku Mahmood Mahyideen
|1942–1945
| British Malaya
|Special Operations Executive –
Force 136 (Malayan region)
|-
|Yuri Modin
|1948–1951
|
|NKVD
|-
|Hugh Montgomery
|1953–1981 (CIA)
1981–1985 (INR)
1989–2014 (CIA)
|
|Central Intelligence Agency
Bureau of Intelligence and Research
|-
|Donald Nichols
|1951
|
|6004th Air Intelligence Service Squadron
|-
|Manuel Piñeiro
|1961–1964
|
|Dirección de Inteligencia
|-
|Allan Pinkerton
|1855–1861
|
|Union Intelligence Service
|-
|Wang Puchen
|1948–1949
|
|Bureau of Investigation and Statistics
|-
|Pyotr Rachkovsky
|1885–1902
|
|Okhrana
|-
|Alfred Redl
|1903–1913
|;<br>
|Evidenzbureau
|-
|Mao Renfeng
|1946–1956
|
|Bureau of Investigation and Statistics
|-
|Semyon Semyonov
|1937–1950
|
|NKVD
|-
|Kang Sheng
|1940s–1946
| Chinese Communist Party
|Central Social Affairs Department
|-
|Hugh Sinclair
|1919–1939
|
|Secret Intelligence Service
|-
|Mansfield Smith-Cumming
|1909–1923
|
|Secret Intelligence Service
|-
|Richard Sorge
|1920–1941
|
|Main Intelligence Directorate
|-
|Sidney Souers
|1946–1946
|
|Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
|-
|Gustav Steinhauer
|1911–1914
|
|Nachrichten-Abteilung
|-
|William Stephenson
|1940–1946
|
|British Security Co-ordination
|-
|Emanuel Sueyro
|–1629
|
|
|-
|Benjamin Tallmadge
|1778–1783
|
|Culper Ring
|-
|John Thurloe
|1653
|
|
|-
|Liam Tobin
|1919
|
|Irish Republican Army
|-
|Francis Walsingham
|1573–1590
|
|
|-
|George Washington
|1775
|
|Continental Army
|-
|William Wickham
|1795–1801
|
|
|-
|Markus Wolf
|1951–1986
|
|Main Directorate for Reconnaissance
|-
|Shen Zui
|1934–1949
|
|Bureau of Investigation and Statistics
|-
|Kyrylo Budanov
|2020–present
|
|Main Directorate of Intelligence (Ukraine)
|-
|Bhola Nath Mullik
|1950–1964
|
|Intelligence Bureau
|-
|R. N. Kao
|1968–1977
|
|Research and Analysis Wing
|-
|Vikram Sood
|1966-2003
|
|Research and Analysis Wing
|-
|Maloy Krishna Dhar
|1968-1996
|
|Intelligence Bureau
|-
|Ajit Doval
|1968–2004<br>2014-Present
|
|Intelligence Bureau<br>National Security Advisor of India
|-
|Zvi Zamir
|1948-1973
|
|Mossad
|-
| R. N. Ravi
|1974-2012<br>2018-2019
|
|Intelligence Bureau<br>Deputy National Security Advisor of India
|-
|Rajinder Khanna
|1978–2016<br>2018-2024<br>2024-Present
|
|Research and Analysis Wing<br>Deputy National Security Advisor of India<br>Additional National Security Advisor of India
|-
|Anil Dhasmana
|1981–2019
|
|Research and Analysis Wing
|-
|Samant Goel
|1984-2023
|
|Research and Analysis Wing
|-
|Ravi Sinha
|1988–2025
|
|Research and Analysis Wing
|-
| Tapan Deka
|1988-Present
|
|Intelligence Bureau
|-
|Parag Jain
|1989–Present
|
|Research and Analysis Wing
|-
|David Barnea
|1996–present
|
|Mossad
|-
|Sergey Naryshkin
|2016–present
|
|SVR
|-
|Mikhail Lyubimov
|1959–1980
|
|KGB
|}
See also
- List of American spies
- List of British spies
- List of German spies
- List of fictional spymasters