The Square Mile: Future City

William Russell

Lord Mayor of the City of London

Alderman William Russell took office as the 692nd Lord Mayor of the City of London on 8th November 2019. He served as a Sheriff of the City of London in 2016-17 and, in that capacity, supported the then Lord Mayor, undertaking numerous visits and official functions. On 30th September 2020 William was elected to serve a further year in office, to provide continuity of civic governance during the Coronavirus emergency. His second term began on 13 November 2020. His mayoral theme for his time in office is “Global UK – The New Future”, supporting businesses through the COVID19 crisis, speeding the recovery and seizing the opportunities of the new future. William has over thirty years’ experience in the financial and business City including holding senior positions in the national and international Banking sector. In 1987 he went to work for First Boston Corporation before joining Merrill Lynch in 1992 as an Investment Banker in Institutional Equity Sales, working in Asia, New York and London. William is currently Chair of CDAM, a London based Asset Management business and Senior Advisor to STJ Advisors. Alderman Russell has a number of charitable interests; he has served as Chair of the Development Board of the Royal Court Theatre, he is a Board Member of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and is on the Council of the Royal Theatrical Support Trust. He is immediate past Chair of Prostate Cancer UK and is currently Deputy Chair of Place2Be, a children’s mental health charity. As of July 2019 he is a member of the Barbican Centre Board. William was elected Alderman for the Ward of Bread Street in March 2013 and has since served on a number of the City of London Corporation Committees including the Policy and Resources Committee and the Education Board. William is also a Governor of the City of London School for Girls and is a past Governor of the Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls, Adams Grammar School and Abraham Darby Academy.

Catherine McGuinness

Chair of the Policy and Resources Committee

City of London Corporation

Catherine McGuinness is Chair of the Policy and Resources Committee at the City of London Corporation. As Chair of the Policy Committee, Catherine is Deputy Chair of TheCityUK, the promotional body for the UK financial services industry, and the International Regulatory Strategy Group. She is Chair of the City’s Courts Sub Committee, the body responsible for the management of the Old Bailey and the City of London Magistrates’ Court. She has led the City’s work on education, chairing its Education Board and the City of London Academies Trust. Catherine has also been closely involved with the City’s cultural offer, having chaired the boards of the Barbican Arts Centre and Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and with the City’s relationship with Northern Ireland. She is on the board of London & Partners, the Mayor of London’s official promotional agency, and a commissioner on the IPPR Commission on Environmental Justice (and previously on the Commission on Economic Justice). A solicitor by training, she practised in financial services law for several years. Catherine studied PPE at St Anne’s College, Oxford.

Alastair Moss

Chair of the Planning and Transportation Committee

Committee of the City of London Corporation

Alastair Moss is the Chair of the Planning and Transportation Committee of the City of London Corporation and past-Chair of the City’s Investment Committee. As Co-Head of Real Estate at City law firm Memery Crystal LLP, he has 20 years of commercial and residential property expertise. He also serves as Non-Executive Director of Civitas Social Housing plc, Trustee of Marshall’s Charity and volunteers as an officer in the Army Reserve. He previously served 12 years as an elected Member of Westminster City Council, principally as Chair of the Planning & City Development Committee.

Damian Nussbaum

Director of Innovation and Growth

City of London Corporation

Damian Nussbaum is Director of Innovation and Growth at the City of London Corporation. His teams work to strengthen the UK’s competitiveness as the world’s leading global hub for financial and professional services to support a thriving economy. Previously he served in central government. He worked on increasing institutional investment into UK infrastructure and development, strengthened government’s engagement with business by setting up a strategic relationship management programme, and served as private secretary to two Secretaries of State. He has worked in Brussels, representing the UK in the EU, and in Paris at the UK Embassy, as well as periods at the energy provider EDF and on secondment to the French Foreign Ministry.

Sharon Ament

Director

Museum of London

Sharon Ament is Director of the Museum of London, which is in the process of creating a new museum for London. Sharon joined the Museum in 2012 and during that time annual visitor numbers reached 1million. This has been achieved through a programme of successful exhibitions including; Fire! Fire!, The Cheapside Hoard, The Crime Museum Uncovered, Tunnel: the Archaeology of Crossrail, Roman Dead, The Havering Hoard: A Bronze Age Mystery and Dub London: Bassline of a City, the Museum has engaged more school children than ever, is experimenting wildly with all things digital and has acquired both its largest object – the Baby Trump balloon, as well as a fatberg! Sharon is a cultural ambassador for the Mayor of London and member of the Mayor’s Cultural Leadership Board; on the Arts & Culture Strategy Group of the London Transition Board, the London Area Council of Arts Council England, Chair of the London Screen Archives and Co-Chair of the Women Leaders in Museums Network. She teaches, advises and presents internationally; and together with partners including the Barbican Centre, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and City of London Corporation is nurturing the development of Culture Mile. Sharon is a Noyce Leadership Fellow, a member of the Conseil Scientifique of Universcience in Paris and on the International Advisory Board of the ArtScience Museum in Singapore.

John Romeo

Managing Partner

Oliver Wyman Forum

John Romeo is the Managing Partner and Head of the Oliver Wyman Forum. He also sits on Oliver Wyman’s Executive Committee, Risk Committee, and Leadership Council. John has 25 years of consulting experience advising the boards and senior executives of the world’s leading private- and public-sector institutions on top-level corporate strategy, organizational effectiveness, risk management, innovation, and mergers and acquisitions. Previously, John has held a number of leadership positions within Oliver Wyman, most recently as Head of the Americas. Before this, John played leadership roles in the firm’s Corporate Finance and Advisory and Corporate and Institutional Banking practices. He served on the European IPO task force convened by EVCA, European Issuers, and FESE and sat on the boards of MMC Securities Limited and several early-stage fintech companies. John is a member of the MMC Global Risk Center Advisory Panel and previously was Chair of the Oliver Wyman Institute. John set up Oliver Wyman’s Social Impact program across the Americas, was the Chair of the firm’s Inclusion Council until 2018, is an author of Oliver Wyman’s annual “Women in Financial Services” Report, and is a proud ally and champion of LGBT issues. John is a board member of Safe Horizon (the largest victims’ services agency in the United States), a member of the Investment Committee of Duke Royalty, and a member of Young Presidents’ Organization. He previously sat on the board of the Partnership for New York City (PNYC). John has a master’s degree in economics from Cambridge University, where he was a Senior Scholar

Sherry Coutu

Entrepreneur and Angel Investor

Sherry Coutu is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who serves on the boards of companies, charities, and universities. She is currently a non-executive Director of Pearson plc, London Stock Exchange plc, DCMS and raspberry pi trading. Sherry has decades of experience chairing Remuneration Committees of FTSE plcs, acting as Senior Independent Director and Nominations Committee chair and serving on audit committees. Philanthropically, she supports Founders4Schools, Digital Boost, Raspberry pi Foundation and Cancer Research UK. Sherry has an MBA from Harvard, an MSc (with distinction) from the London School of Economics, and a BA (Hons with distinction) from the University of British Columbia, Canada. She has been awarded Honourary Phd's from The University of Bristol, Manchester University and the Open University for her work in Education and the Economy. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to entrepreneurship in the New Year's Honours List 2013.

Melanie Eusebe MBE

I&D Lead for Accenture Europe and UK/I, Founder of the Black British Business Awards

Accenture

Melanie Eusebe is the Founder of the Black British Business Awards (BBBAwards) and Director, Strategy and Consulting at Accenture. Melanie is an entrepreneur, a board trustee and a business strategist with over 20 years’ experience as a management consultant. In her role as Director, Strategy and Consulting at Accenture, she focuses on growth and engagement strategies for some of the world’s biggest brands and largest organisations. A committed teacher, Melanie is a professor in the field of leadership and management at leading business school and also has her own on-line business school. Alongside her leading role in the BBBAwards, Melanie was Executive Producer for the Women of the World (WoW) Festival, a global gender equality festival involving over two million women from 50 cities on five continents. Melanie was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to diversity in business. Melanie has been profiled as one of the most influential women in business and the creative industries in the UK.

Danny Lopez

CEO

Glasswall

Danny has enjoyed a successful international career to date in banking, marketing, diplomacy, and technology. Danny is the CEO of award-winning cyber security firm Glasswall, which delivers unique protection against sophisticated threats through its groundbreaking technology. For two years up until August 2018 Danny was the COO at Blippar, a UK-based augmented reality (AR) pioneer. Between 2011 and 2016 Danny was the British Consul General to New York and Director General for trade and investment across North America. Before this diplomatic posting, Danny was appointed by the Mayor of London as the inaugural CEO of London & Partners, the UK capital’s official promotional agency. Previously, Danny was a Managing Director at the UK government’s Department for International Trade. The first ten years of Danny’s career were at Barclays Bank, where he held several senior international positions in corporate and investment banking in London, New York, Miami, and Mumbai. Danny is a Non-Executive Director at Innovate Finance – the UK industry body championing global FinTech – and a special advisor to New York-based venture capital firm, FinTech Collective. He is also a Council Member and Trustee at the University of Essex, his alma mater. Danny speaks regularly on platforms across the world on topics including geopolitics and the intersection of market disrupting technologies and government policy. Danny holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and a Master’s degree in international economics and finance from the University of Essex. Born in England, Danny grew up in Spain and is a fluent Spanish speaker. Danny and his Australian wife Susan live in London with their three children.

Constantin Cotzias

European Director

Bloomberg L.P.

Constantin M. Cotzias is European Director at Bloomberg L.P. He is Global Head of External Affairs. He is a Director of Bloomberg Tradebook and Bloomberg Multilateral Trading Facility. He sits on the Mayor of London Economic Advisory Board and the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council. He was previously CEO of Bloomberg’s legal and regulatory news and research division. He joined Bloomberg in 2001 as Chief Counsel. Prior to Bloomberg, Cotzias was a senior mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Denton Wilde Sapte (presently known as Dentons), one of the United Kingdom’s largest law firms, where he advised on mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and IPOs across industries including media, telecoms, technology, and energy. From 1998-2000, he was Chief Counsel of Denton Wilde Sapte’s Moscow office. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Modern History and Politics and is a Law graduate from the London School of Economics (University of London). Cotzias is a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.

Stephanie Flanders

Senior Executive Editor for Economics at Bloomberg News and Head of Bloomberg Economics

Bloomberg L.P.

Stephanie Flanders joined Bloomberg in October 2017 as Senior Executive Editor for Economics and head of Bloomberg Economics. In this new post she leads a combined group of more than 100 Bloomberg News economic reporters worldwide and 25 professional research economists.

Stephanie came to Bloomberg from J P Morgan Asset Management, where she had been Chief Market Strategist for the UK and Europe since 2013. Stephanie was Economics Editor for the BBC from 2008 to 2013, where her national and global economic analysis was broadcast around the world and widely respected. Prior to joining the BBC, Stephanie was a speechwriter and senior advisor to US Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers in the second Clinton Administration, where she was closely involved in the management of emerging market crises and other major economic issues from 1997 to 2001. She has also worked as an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and London Business School.

She is an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford and a Fellow of the Society of Professional Economics. In 2016 she was appointed to Chair the Royal Society of Arts' Inclusive Growth Commission, which delivered its final report in 2017.