Michael Mainelli

Michael Raymond Mainelli (born 19 December 1958) is an American-born British scientist, economist, and accountant, known for being Chairman of Z/Yen, Sheriff of London for 2019–21, and 695th Lord Mayor of the City of London for 2023–24.

An Emeritus Professor of Commerce of Gresham College, and founder of the Long Finance initiative, since 4 July 2013 Mainelli has been Alderman for Broad Street Ward in the City of London, and he was elected Sheriff on 24 June 2019.

Early life and education
Michael Mainelli's mother and father are Irish American and Italian American, respectively, and his paternal grandmother is of German ancestry. His father worked as a mechanical engineer, and at one time was a project manager on the Apollo capsule for Boeing.

From 1973 to 1977, Mainelli attended Bishop Moore High School in Orlando, Florida, where he was first introduced to computing, and spent three summers working as a programmer for Martin Marietta on missile guidance systems.

Mainelli attended Harvard University where he was a resident of Dunster House and graduated with a BA degree in government in 1984, having also spent a year at Trinity College Dublin on an engineering and mathematics course from 1980 to 1981. Mainelli later completed an MPhil (1997) and PhD (2004) at the London School of Economics in chaotic systems with a doctoral thesis titled Development of a risk-reward meta-methodology, under the supervision of Ian Angell.

Early Career
Mainelli's early research in aerospace and computer graphics at the Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis led him to start Swiss companies in seismology, cartography, and energy information for Petroconsultants, an oil and gas information services company, from 1979 to 1984. He produced Mundocart, a complete 1:1,00,000 digital map of the world for use in petroleum mapping in 1983, while directing the Geodat cartography project. Mainelli left Petroconsultants in 1985, and joined Arthur Andersen a year later as a senior manager. He later became a senior partner and board member of the accountancy firm BDO Binder Hamlyn from 1987 to 1995.

While co-founding Z/Yen in 1994, Mainelli pursued merchant banking with Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and was Corporate Development Director at the UK Ministry of Defence's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (now largely Qinetiq and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory). At Z/Yen, Mainelli established the Global Financial Centres Index, the London Accord, Long Finance, the Global Intellectual Property Index, the Global Green Finance Index, the Smart Centres Index, the Farsight Award, and other financial services initiatives. His area of current research includes Distributed Futures and he speaks on his research on 'smart ledgers' (aka blockchains) as well as other technologies.

Present Day
Mainelli is a Fellow and Trustee of Gresham College, Visiting Professor of UCL Bartlett School, Honorary Fellow of King's College London, and a former Visiting Professor of the London School of Economics. He is the current Chairman of Z/Yen Group. In 2005 Mainelli, in conjunction with Gresham College, the City of London Corporation and financial institutions, launched Long Finance's London Accord, an agreement to share environmental, social and governance research with policy makers and the public. Mainelli has lectured on new concepts of money and the role of government,  publishing 28 one-hour  Gresham lectures, while serving as Professor of Commerce from 2005 to 2009. The theme of his programme was "Society’s Commercial Choice – Risks and Rewards of Markets".

Mainelli is a chartered certified accountant (FCCA), computer specialist (FBCS, CITP), securities professional (FCSI (Hons)) and management consultant (FIMC, CMC). He is a non-executive Director of the United Kingdom Accreditation Service and Wishbone Gold plc, an AIM-listed company. He has been an international member of the International Financial Services Industry Advisory Committee to the Office of the Taoiseach – Dublin, Ireland since 2015. In 2015 he was elected a Consigliere del Senato Accademico of L’Accademia Tiberina. In 2020, having served as a Trustee from 2008, he received Honorary Life Fellowship of Gresham College. He has held advisory posts at City University, Hitachi UK, and HM Treasury. Mainelli has been an honorary bencher of Middle Temple since February 2023.

City of London
First elected Alderman for Broad Street Ward on the City of London Corporation in 2013, Mainelli is a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of World Traders (for 2017–18), and an Honorary Liveryman of the Furniture Makers', Water Conservators', Marketors', Tax Advisers', Management Consultants', Security Professionals', Engineers', Chartered Architects', Playing Card Makers', International Bankers', and Scientific Instrument Makers' Companies, an Honorary Freeman of the Educators' Company, as well as a Craft-Owning Freeman of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen. He is the sponsoring Alderman for the Company of Communicators in their process of obtaining full livery status.

Mainelli was elected Sheriff of the City of London on 24 June 2019, assuming office on 27 September 2019. In view of the global disruption to public life brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Mainelli was re-elected, on 24 June 2020, to serve a second term as a Sheriff of London for 2021.

On 29 September 2023, Mainelli was elected Lord Mayor of the City of London, and took office on 10 November 2023, being the first American-born person to do so. Mainelli's mayoral theme is 'Connect To Prosper', an initiative that aims to highlight the City of London's ability to solve global challenges. It champions the "scientific, academic and business worlds", going beyond the traditional support of finance and professional services usually associated with the role.

Writing
Mainelli has published more than 50 journal articles, 250 commercial articles and four books, including the novel Clean Business Cuisine: Now and Z/Yen, written with Ian Harris. Mainelli's economics book, The Price of Fish, also written with Ian Harris, applied his Gresham lecture series ideas to "wicked problems".

Novels

 * Michael Mainelli and Ian Harris, Clean Business Cuisine: Now and Z/Yen, Milet Publishing (2000), ISBN 1840592273, 160 pages.

Non-fiction

 * Abdeldjellil Bouzidi and Michael Mainelli, L'Innovation Financière Au Service Du Climat: Les Obligations À Impact Environnemental, Revue Banque (2017), ISBN 978-2-86325-784-5, 123 pages.
 * Michael Mainelli and Ian Harris, The Price of Fish: A New Approach to Wicked Economics and Better Decisions, Nicholas Brealey Publishing (2011), ISBN 978-1857885712, 328 pages
 * Ian Harris and Michael Mainelli, Information Technology for the Not-for-Profit Sector, ICSA Publishing (2001), ISBN 1860721303, 224 pages.

Personal life
Mainelli married Elisabeth ( Reuß, 1964) in 1996. Together they undertook the restoration of the SB Lady Daphne, a Thames sailing barge built in 1923. Mainelli still supports and lectures on sailing barges and their history, having sold the SB Lady Daphne upon completing renovation in 2017. He is a Committee Member of the Thames Sailing Barge Match, the second oldest sailing race in the world.

Awards

 * Department of Trade and Industry SMART Award 2003 for Z/Yen's predictive analytics software
 * British Computer Society "Director of the Year" (2004–05)
 * Independent Publishers Gold Award for Finance, Investment and Economics 2012 - "The Price of Fish: A New Approach to Wicked Economics and Better Decisions"

Honours

 * Member of the Order of St John (MStJ) – 21 October 2019
 * Knight of Justice of the Order of St John (KStJ) – 31 January 2024