He looks the part - tall, lean with a sense of humour as dry as a dry Martini (shaken not stirred).
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His eyes of steel do twinkle - but you suspect they might just switch in a flash to pierce like a dagger.
James Bond's boss is M. In the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, M has a name: Mike Burgess, the director-general of ASIO.
Mr Burgess - Canberra's very own Spy Master - has just inspected a new exhibition about the country's spooks. He approves.
"Spy" opens on Friday but ASIO's director-general took The Canberra Times on a guided tour before the doors open to the public.
He looked at the tools of his trade like secret cameras hidden inside ties and books.
And disguises like a bushy wig which, you might think, would look as conspicuous as a possum perched on the spy's head. Incognito, it ain't.
"This is fantastic - the disguises used by staff to hide and blend in," the spy master said.
Showing a dry sense of humour more Bondish than bureaucratic (that's Bond - James Bond), he said that his own bald head might be false, a kind of wig in reverse to hide hair.
"You don't know that I'm not wearing a disguise today and maybe it's a testament to how good it is that you can't see this mop of hair on my head," he told The Canberra Times.
You don't know that I'm not wearing a disguise today and maybe it's a testament to how good it is that you can't see this mop of hair on my head.
- Mike Burgess, Head of ASIO on his disguise
The National Archives are mounting the exhibition at its headquarters on King's Avenue in Parkes because the spy agency is such an important - if secret - part of Australian life.
"A big function we have is to reveal information that's previously been kept secret," said the head of the archives, David Fricker who was Deputy Director-General of ASIO until 2011.
"The topic of ASIO and security intelligence in Australia is just the prime example of an opportunity we have at the archives to tell Australians the true nature of espionage of intelligence throughout the history of Australia."
One of the more intriguing part of the exhibition consists of the interviews with spies (whether former or current isn't clear).
They give a flavour of the work in the prominent ASIO headquarters in the Ben Chifley Building on Constitution Avenue. It's often mundane - more bureaucracy than James Bond.
The officers - spies - take different routes to work, cope with how they (don't) describe their working day to neighbours.
They talk, too, about how the work of ASIO has changed with the fall of communism and the rise of terrorism (see next Saturday's paper for more).
- Coming up in Saturday's The Canberra Times: what it's like working for ASIO - the insiders' view.
- Spy: Espionage in Australia runs until April 27, 2020 at the National Archives on Kings Avenue, Parkes. Admission is free.
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
