Name
Professor Michael Mainelli
Job Title
Lord Mayor of the City of London
Speaker Bio
Michael Mainelli was elected as Lord Mayor of the City of London on 29 September 2023 and took office on 10 November 2023. He previously served Sheriff of the City of London from 2019-2021, being granted an extraordinary second year in that office, the first time since 1228, in order to provide continuity during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Educated at Harvard University and Trinity College Dublin, Michael gained his PhD at London School of Economics where he was also a Visiting Professor. Originally a research scientist in aerospace (rocket science) and graphics in the USA and Switzerland, he created the first commercial digital maps of the world in Cambridge. He entered the City of London in 1984 ahead of Big Bang, becoming a partner in 1987 with BDO Binder Hamlyn, and in 1995 a Director of Ministry of Defence research. During a mergers & acquisitions spell in merchant banking with Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, he co-founded Z/Yen, the City of London’s leading think-tank, promoting societal advance through better finance and technology. Z/Yen is renowned for the Global Financial Centres Index, Global Green Finance Index, Long Finance, and numerous technology and finance projects.
He has served as Alderman for Broad Street since 2013; President of Broad Street Ward Club; member of Lime Street and Farringdon Ward Clubs; Trustee of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal, Lord Mayor’s Show, Lord Mayor’s 800th Anniversary Awards Trust, and Morden College; Professor & Life Fellow of Gresham College and Fellow of Goodenough College; Honorary Fellow of King’s College London; Council Member for City & Guilds. Michael is non-executive director of an AIM-listed mining firm and the United Kingdom Accreditation Service overseeing UK laboratories and quality standards. Past posts have included Almoner of Christ’s Hospital, International Financial Advisor to the Taoiseach, and London Waterways Commissioner, as well as Trustee of the International Fund for Animal Welfare and Ocean Alliance.
Michael is passionate about the Livery as a Past Master of the World Traders, Honorary Liveryman of the Worshipful Companies of Furniture Makers, Water Conservators, Marketors, and Tax Advisers, Craft-Owning Freeman of the Watermen & Lightermen, and member of the City Livery Club and Guild of Freemen. Michael works to maintain the City’s pre-eminence as the world’s leading professional, business, legal, technical, and financial services centre, championing the three C’s of Commerce, Community, and Charity.
His wife, Elisabeth, is from Bavaria. Elisabeth trained in hotel management and has worked in Germany and London, where she became a personal assistant to the managing partner of a large accountancy firm. They married in 1996 and have three children. She continues to work at her events company and is a director of a property management company. Elisabeth is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Masons and a Freeman Honoris Causa of the World Traders. As former Thames barge owners restoring SB Lady Daphne over two decades, they retain deep links with the sailing barge community and the venerable Thames Match (1863). Michael and Elisabeth chaired the Guildhall British Red Cross Christmas Market in 2017.
Michael’s hobbies include skiing, woodcarving, diving, dicing with bagpipes, racing sailboats, and dabbling in German, Italian, and French, but even worse Mandarin. He has written over 60 journal articles, 250 business articles and a few books. His humorous novel, Clean Business Cuisine: Now and Z/Yen, written with Ian Harris, was a Sunday Times Book of the Week in 2000; Accountancy Age described it as “surprisingly funny considering it is written by a couple of accountants”. The Price of Fish: A New Approach to Wicked Economics and Better Decisions, also with Ian Harris, won the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards Finance, Investment & Economics Gold Prize.
Educated at Harvard University and Trinity College Dublin, Michael gained his PhD at London School of Economics where he was also a Visiting Professor. Originally a research scientist in aerospace (rocket science) and graphics in the USA and Switzerland, he created the first commercial digital maps of the world in Cambridge. He entered the City of London in 1984 ahead of Big Bang, becoming a partner in 1987 with BDO Binder Hamlyn, and in 1995 a Director of Ministry of Defence research. During a mergers & acquisitions spell in merchant banking with Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, he co-founded Z/Yen, the City of London’s leading think-tank, promoting societal advance through better finance and technology. Z/Yen is renowned for the Global Financial Centres Index, Global Green Finance Index, Long Finance, and numerous technology and finance projects.
He has served as Alderman for Broad Street since 2013; President of Broad Street Ward Club; member of Lime Street and Farringdon Ward Clubs; Trustee of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal, Lord Mayor’s Show, Lord Mayor’s 800th Anniversary Awards Trust, and Morden College; Professor & Life Fellow of Gresham College and Fellow of Goodenough College; Honorary Fellow of King’s College London; Council Member for City & Guilds. Michael is non-executive director of an AIM-listed mining firm and the United Kingdom Accreditation Service overseeing UK laboratories and quality standards. Past posts have included Almoner of Christ’s Hospital, International Financial Advisor to the Taoiseach, and London Waterways Commissioner, as well as Trustee of the International Fund for Animal Welfare and Ocean Alliance.
Michael is passionate about the Livery as a Past Master of the World Traders, Honorary Liveryman of the Worshipful Companies of Furniture Makers, Water Conservators, Marketors, and Tax Advisers, Craft-Owning Freeman of the Watermen & Lightermen, and member of the City Livery Club and Guild of Freemen. Michael works to maintain the City’s pre-eminence as the world’s leading professional, business, legal, technical, and financial services centre, championing the three C’s of Commerce, Community, and Charity.
His wife, Elisabeth, is from Bavaria. Elisabeth trained in hotel management and has worked in Germany and London, where she became a personal assistant to the managing partner of a large accountancy firm. They married in 1996 and have three children. She continues to work at her events company and is a director of a property management company. Elisabeth is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Masons and a Freeman Honoris Causa of the World Traders. As former Thames barge owners restoring SB Lady Daphne over two decades, they retain deep links with the sailing barge community and the venerable Thames Match (1863). Michael and Elisabeth chaired the Guildhall British Red Cross Christmas Market in 2017.
Michael’s hobbies include skiing, woodcarving, diving, dicing with bagpipes, racing sailboats, and dabbling in German, Italian, and French, but even worse Mandarin. He has written over 60 journal articles, 250 business articles and a few books. His humorous novel, Clean Business Cuisine: Now and Z/Yen, written with Ian Harris, was a Sunday Times Book of the Week in 2000; Accountancy Age described it as “surprisingly funny considering it is written by a couple of accountants”. The Price of Fish: A New Approach to Wicked Economics and Better Decisions, also with Ian Harris, won the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards Finance, Investment & Economics Gold Prize.