Nicholas Lyons elected 694th Lord Mayor of the City of London

Nicholas Lyons has been elected as the 694th Lord Mayor of the City of London.

As the elected head of the City of London Corporation, he will serve as a global ambassador for the UK-based financial and professional services industry from Friday 11 November for a one-year term.

Alderman Lyons will succeed the current Lord Mayor Vincent Keaveny. The annual Lord Mayor’s Show takes place on Saturday 12 November, which will be followed by the Lord Mayor’s Banquet on Monday 28 November at Guildhall where the Prime Minister will deliver a keynote speech.

The Lord Mayor acts as an international spokesperson for the City, leading business delegations overseas to key international markets on behalf of the UK’s financial and professional services industry.

In the role he will meet government representatives from around the world, alongside business leaders and policy makers both at home and abroad. He will look to strengthen economic ties with the UK, identify new business opportunities and promote the UK as a top global destination for foreign investment.

During his Mayoral year, Alderman Lyons – who is taking a sabbatical from being Chairman of Phoenix Group Holdings – will also champion his ‘Financing our Future’ theme by promoting a resilient, resourceful and responsible City. It will focus on fuelling the economy by deploying capital and expertise to supercharge economic growth nationwide and advancing the UK’s global competitiveness. ‘Financing our Future’ will seek to drive growth and investment especially in the areas of long-term infrastructure lending, green and sustainable finance, boosting the early-stage growth economy by mobilising private savings and pension funds, and attracting international asset owners to have more of their money managed by asset managers in the UK. This will be underpinned by a commitment to financial inclusion for all.

Alderman Lyons said:

“It is a great honour to be elected the 694th Lord Mayor of the City of London. I want to put the City back where it belongs at the heart of the economy when the country most needs it to drive growth, create jobs and support investment.

“Financial and professional services firms employ over 2.3 million people across the UK – two-thirds of which are outside of London. The sector is a national asset that underpins every aspect of our lives. During the Covid crisis, it enabled us to operate successfully working from home, ensuring that transactions, payments and access to credit and to savings were unaffected.

“We cannot, however, afford to be complacent and must work with Government and the regulators to ensure the UK is internationally competitive, innovative and open.

“We must also address the twin challenges of financial literacy and financial inclusion. This is particularly important in the face of a challenging economic outlook and I hope to drive this agenda forward during my year in office.”

About Alderman Lyons

Alderman Nicholas Lyons was elected as the next Lord Mayor of the City of London on 29 September 2022. He previously served as Sheriff of the City of London in 2021-22.

Nicholas was born in Ireland, the son of Dr FSL Lyons, the Irish historian and Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. When his parents moved to Kent in 1964, he went to school in Canterbury, attending the King’s School and then Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read history. After time as a political research assistant in London and with the Directorate General for External Relations at the EEC Commission in Brussels, Nicholas joined Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York in London in 1982 where he worked for 12 years, then at Salomon Brothers from 1994 to 1995 and then moved with a team to Lehman Brothers where he worked from 1995 until 2003. He specialised in advising banks and insurance companies on mergers and acquisitions and raising capital. He held a series of global leadership roles at Lehman Brothers, retiring in 2003 to begin a plural career, sitting on the boards of many financial institutions and numerous charities. His City career has spanned over 40 years.

He is currently taking a sabbatical from being Chairman of Phoenix Group Holdings, the largest player in the UK retirement and long-term savings industry and a FTSE 100 company. Phoenix is the largest asset-owner signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment in the UK. Last year when he became Sheriff, he stepped down from the group board of BUPA where he had chaired their new Sustainability Committee exploring the link between human health and bio-diversity. He sits on the boards of Convex Group, a specialty insurance underwriter and Miller Insurance Services, a London market insurance broker. He is a member of the Leadership Council of The CityUK, the Advisory Board of the International Business & Diplomatic Exchange, the Association of British Insurers and the Chartered Insurance Institute.

His philanthropic activities have revolved around education, children’s hospice care and the arts. This included being a Governor at The King’s School, Canterbury, Saint Columba’s College in Dublin, St Dunstan‘s College in Catford and King Edward’s, Witley in Surrey. With his focus on education, Nick has introduced National Numeracy to the Lord Mayor’s Appeal and intends to convene a conference to lead a national discussion about how to address the twin challenges of financial literacy and financial inclusion.

Nicholas is a Trustee of the St Paul’s Cathedral Choristers’ Trust and of the East Anglia Art Fund and is a Patron of Temple Bar Trust. He is a Court Assistant both at the Merchant Taylors’ Company and at the Bakers’ Company. He is a Liveryman of both the Insurers’ and the Educators’ Companies. He is a Lieutenant of the City of London.

Nicholas is married to Felicity who was until recently the Chair of Trustees of Tapping House, the Norfolk Hospice. She is a Liveryman of the Musicians’ Company, a sailor, kayaker and singer. They have four children, Oliver, Charles, India and Alistair, two (soon to be three) daughters-in-law, one son-in-law and four grandchildren and counting.