As the elected head of the City of London Corporation, he will serve as a global ambassador for the UK financial and professional services industry from Friday, 10 November for a one-year term. He will succeed current Lord Mayor Nicholas Lyons.

The annual Lord Mayor’s Show takes place on Saturday, 11 November, which will be Alderman Mainelli’s first public engagement. It will be followed by the Lord Mayor’s Banquet on Monday 13 November at Guildhall, where the Prime Minister will deliver a keynote speech.

The Lord Mayor acts as an international spokesperson for the City, leading business delegations overseas to key international markets on behalf of the UK’s financial and professional services industry.

In the role Alderman Mainelli will meet government representatives from around the world, alongside business leaders and policy makers both at home and abroad. He will work to strengthen global economic ties with the UK, identify new business opportunities, and promote the UK as a top global destination for foreign investment.

During his Mayoral year, Alderman Mainelli will champion ‘Connect To Prosper’, an initiative focused on harnessing the City’s vast knowledge ecosystem. Surrounded by over 40 learned societies, 70 higher education institutions, and 130 research institutes, the City is a dynamic hub for innovation.

He will spotlight the City’s expertise in areas including finance, law, art, and engineering, while bringing together thought leaders from diverse backgrounds to encourage innovation and global problem solving on critical challenges facing the world – from climate change to artificial intelligence.

He will also emphasise the City’s unique role as a global knowledge connector and talent cluster, showcasing its capacity to address global challenges and foster inventiveness within its communities.

Lord Mayor Elect, Alderman Michael Mainelli, said:

“I am deeply honoured to have been elected as the 695th Lord Mayor of the City of London. As its global ambassador, I will champion the UK financial and professional services industry – not only as a powerhouse of the UK economy – but also a driver of prosperity to key markets abroad.

My ‘Connect To Prosper‘ theme will bring together thought leaders from the business, scientific, and academic worlds to demonstrate the City’s strengths in solving global challenges.  Together we will showcase the Square Mile’s unique leadership role as the world’s coffeehouse, where connections between firms, institutions, and people, lead to new ideas and solutions that benefit the world.”

We very much look forward to Professor Mainelli’s time as Lord Mayor, which is the highlight of our ongoing commitment to the City.  You can read his acceptance speech and learn about his Mayoral theme, ‘Connect To Prosper‘.

Background – Financial and professional services firms employ over seven per cent of the UK workforce, 2.3m people, two-thirds of whom are outside London. The City accounts for one in every five financial services jobs in the UK.  Financial and professional services firms contributed nearly £100 billion in taxes in 2020, providing over 13% of the UK’s total tax revenue.  The UK was the world’s leading net exporter of financial and professional services (£121bn) in 2020. Financial services accounted for £82bn and professional services for £39bn. Financial and insurance services contributed £173.6 billion to the UK economy in 2021, 8.3% of the total. It was the fifth largest sector in terms of overall economic output.

The UK financial services sector was the fourth largest of OECD countries in 2021 by its proportion of national economic output (8.3%), down from third highest in 2020. Around 2.5 times as many dollars are traded in the UK as in the US. Overall, the UK has 43% of the global total of foreign-exchange turnover.

Professor Michael Mainelli MStJ FCCA FCSI(Hon) FBCS, Executive Chairman, Z/Yen Group Michael is a scientist and economist trying to promote societal advance through better finance and technology. Originally a research scientist in aerospace (rocket science) and computing (architecture & cartography), educated at Harvard, Trinity College Dublin, he gained his PhD from the London School of Economics, where he was also Visiting Professor in innovation and IT. Working in Switzerland, he conceived and created the first commercial digital maps of the world, Geodat and MundoCart. He became a senior partner of accountants BDO Binder Hamlyn, and Corporate Development Director for the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Evaluation & Research Agency. During a mergers & acquisitions spell in merchant banking with Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, in 1994 he founded Z/Yen, the City of London’s leading commercial think-tank. Z/Yen is renowned for its Global Financial, Green Finance, and Smart Centres indices, as well as notable ‘firsts’ in technology research, including distributed ledgers.

Michael has advised numerous governments and municipalities around the world, including four years as International Financial Services Advisor to the Office of the Taoiseach. Michael is a fellow of Gresham College, King’s College London, and Goodenough College, visiting professor at UCL’s Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple, and non-executive director of the United Kingdom Accreditation Service and a listed mining company. He is active in fourteen livery companies, past Master of the World Traders, an Alderman of the City of London for Broad Street, and past Sheriff of the City of London 2019-2021, with charity interests in the environment, education, and care. He is Lord Mayor elect of London from 10 November. His third book, written with Ian Harris, The Price Of Fish: A New Approach To Wicked Economics And Better Decisions, won the Independent Publisher Book Awards Finance, Investment & Economics Gold Prize.

Professor Mainelli was elected the 695th Lord Mayor of London at Common Hall, comprising liverymen belonging to all of the City of London’s livery companies. He will take up his position on 10 November 2023.