Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli served as the 695th Lord Mayor of the City of London and has been a UKAS Non-Executive Director for 19 years.
Following an illustrious career as a research scientist in aerospace, computing and global mapping, a senior partner with accountancy firm BDO Binder Hamlyn, Corporate Development Director for the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, and mergers and acquisitions work with Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, Michael co-founded Z/Yen in 1994.
Z/Yen is the City of London’s leading commercial think-tank that promotes societal advance through better decisions about science and economics. Z/Yen is renowned for bringing together discussions around its global indices of financial centres, green finance, and smart centres, as well as its innovations in finance and technology.
Michael continued this collaborative approach bringing together industry, academics, research institutions and government during his year as the Lord Mayor of the City of London. His mayoralty theme was “Connect To Prosper”, celebrating the many knowledge miles of the Square Mile. A key part of his mission was promoting the Square Mile as the world’s coffee house and harnessing the City’s vast knowledge ecosystem as a dynamic hub for innovation.
During his year in office, he represented the City on a global scale and played a pivotal role leading business delegations to international markets – including more than 100 days of travel to over 25 countries, strengthening ties, and promoting business opportunities to showcase the City’s strengths and capabilities.
Michael was the first American-born and the first Italian Lord Mayor of London and revelled in the rich history and tradition of the office, which dates back to 1189. He has served as Alderman for Broad Street since 2013 and was Sheriff of the City of London from 2019-2021.
The 2023 Lord Mayor’s Show, which took place in November, marked the start of his term in office and he describes the historic procession, where he rode in the iconic golden state coach, as one of the best days of his life outside of family occasions. Michael’s colleagues from UKAS formed part of the procession, joining with the British Standards Institution and the National Physical Laboratory to sponsor the float of the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers.
Michael has strong connections to livery companies in the City having been a Past Master of the World Traders, Craft-Owning Freeman of the Watermen & Lightermen as well as Honorary Freeman of fifteen other livery companies.
He says: “The guilds and livery companies with their nearly 50,000 members have served us well for centuries. This structure was the dominant governance model in Europe for hundreds of cities up until Napoleon. As part of my role as Lord Mayor, I travelled overseas extensively with a particular focus on re-connecting with Europe on our shared history, visiting more European countries this year, ten, than ever.”
Michael’s first contact with the world of standards came while working for accountants BDO Binder Hamlyn. He believes that BDO was the first City firm to be certified to the ISO 9001 quality management systems standard in 1991. Later it became the first firm to be certified to BS7750, now ISO 14000, the environmental management standard.
He says: “I was working with a team of quality advisors and, when we assessed the standard, this made a lot of sense and drew me in. Standards provide guidance for customers and suppliers. Standards facilitate trade and best practice. At that time they weren’t seen to apply to professional services firms, but we went ahead anyway with excellent results that truly improved our business practices and provided greater certainty of quality delivery to clients.”
As a long-standing Non-Executive Director at UKAS, Michael is passionate about accredited conformity assessment and proud of the way that this has supported UK trade, particularly as he sits on the Board of Trade.
He says: “Since joining UKAS 19 years ago I’ve seen a lot of change and modernisation. I am constantly impressed with the care and dedication our employees provide to society by helping the public and businesses determine appropriate reliance on products and services. There have been many highlights, but I might single out our merger with CPA (Clinical Pathology Accreditation) that transformed our approach to accreditation across the Healthcare sector.”
There were a number of connections to standards, conformity assessment, and accreditation in Michael’s Connect To Prosper mayoral programme.
This extensive programme brought together thought leaders from the scientific, academic and business worlds to demonstrate the City’s strengths in solving global challenges. The initiatives covered a wide range of priority areas including speeding up and improving the quality of mental health research, sustainable finance standards, tackling the space junk crisis with insurance standards, smart economy networks using X-Road standards, creating a standard for retrofit biolabs in urban environments, and ethical AI (Artificial Intelligence) using ISO standards.
The 695th Lord Mayor’s Ethical AI Initiative was set up to help tackle the contemporary challenge of ethical deployment of AI. A key element of the initiative is promoting the use of ISO 42001, the AI Management System standard. Working in partnership with the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, the British Computer Society, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, more than 6,000 people have taken their joint invigilated 12-hour course in 60 countries. The International Corporate Governance Network’s Coffee House Consensus on Responsible AI has been developed in collaboration with major global investors whose assets under management exceeds $26tn. The two-page consensus aims to help investors and investees coordinate around the responsible deployment of AI using ISO 42001, thus increasing returns and reducing risks.
Michael hosted the UKAS/TIC (Testing, Inspection and Certification) Council AI Summit at Mansion House in March 2024. This led to global quality infrastructure partners making a commitment towards the Walbrook AI Accord to ensure that AI technologies are developed, deployed and used in a way that is safe, secure, ethical and sustainable. Working with UKAS CEO, Matt Gantley, the Walbrook AI Accord was signed in Brussels in May 2024 by 38 nations. It promotes the use of ISO 42001 for interoperable international regulation, rather than national regulation of AI. A permanent board is being established, to be known as AI Quality Infrastructure.
Looking back on his legacy as Lord Mayor, Michael says that he is proud of many things, but a quirky one might be Pepys Day in honour of the famous diarist Samuel Pepys. On 6 September, the 358th anniversary of the end of the Great Fire of London, he led 250 Samuel Pepys enthusiasts on themed walks around the City starting from the Monument. He hopes that from this small start London can build an annual day as big as Bloomsday in Dublin.