Community Chest: The City Of London - The World's Coffee House

Professor Michael Mainelli returns to the FS Club webinar series after a year's sabbatical from Z/Yen to reflect on his personal experience of financial centres, particularly the City of London. As the creator of the Global Financial Centres, Smart Centres, and Global Green Finance indices, he knows what makes cities work. Michael has a unique viewpoint on the City of London, reinforced through the privilege of serving as: Lord Mayor of London (2023-2024) - his theme was "Connect To Prosper", celebrating the many Knowledge Miles of our Square Mile, the world's coffee house, during which year City of London jobs grew from 615,000 to 678,000 (!), an increase of over 10% - end-of-term report; Sheriff of London (2019-2021) - alongside Deputy Chris Hayward, where due to Covid they were the first two Sheriffs since 1228 AD to serve a second term with a core programme of strengthening & simplifying anti-money laundering - end-of-term report. In this Community Chest, Michael hopes to provide answers to questions such as the future of financial centre concentrations, geopolitics, and regulation, as well as the underpinning technology and skills changes. His thinking has been heavily influenced from a year travelling well over 100 days to 25 countries and he looks forward to exchanging thoughts with fellow FS Club members.