Darren Paul Boyling

Darren Paul K Boyling (born 7 October 1979, Brentwood, Essex. )

Darren Paul Boyling, British intelligence officer in 2021.

Family

Boyling was born in Brentwood, Essex to Paul J D Boyling and Carol L Boyling (nee Emmerton). His parents married Jan-Mar 1977 in Brentwood, Essex.

Career

• 2022 - 2025 Senior State Threats Adviser working for the Joint Funds Unit and attached to the National Security Directorate of the FCDO
• 2019-2022 Head of Strategic Communications, Russia Unit, Eastern Europe & Central Asia Directorate, The Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO). Darren leads the unit’s Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme
• 2002 (approx) - 2019 - Over the past 20 years he has worked on various international development and national security issues including whilst posted in Ethiopia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Serbia

Biographical details

In a 2021 biographical note on the Aspen Institute UK website:

Darren Boyling – Head of Strategic Communications, Russia Unit, Eastern Europe & Central Asia Directorate, The Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO). Darren leads the unit’s Counter Disinformation and Media Development programme which supports independent media, CSOs and partner governments across Europe. His team also provides strategic communication capability to the FCDO on Russia related issues. Over the past 20 years he has worked on various international development and national security issues including whilst posted in Ethiopia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Serbia. He holds an MA in Public Policy and Management.

• Successor to Andy Pryce as head of the Counter Disinformation and Media Development programme in the HMG Russia Unit starting 2019.
• Named as a member of HMG Russia Unit by Russian intelligence;
• in 2022 he was described as follows:

Darren Boyling, a Senior State Threats Adviser working for the Joint Funds Unit and is currently attached the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office’s National Security Directorate. Darren provides advice on programming and understanding state threats and is building the FCDO’s global state threats network. He was previously Head of Strategic Communications in the HMG Russia Unit in the FCDO. Over the past 20 years he has worked on various international development and national security issues including whilst posted in Ethiopia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Serbia.

Elsewhere on the page the Joint Funds Unit is described as being in the Cabinet Office. Given that it oversees the CSSF and its successor the UK ISF, it is clear that Boyling continued to work - in this post - in the intelligence community.