On 24 June at Common Hall Chris Hayward CC and I were delighted to be elected Sheriffs to take effect at our installation on 27 September. Here we are pictured outside Cutlers’ Hall with our wives Alex and Elisabeth as we toured nine livery companies in ninety minutes to thank the nearly 1,400 people who turned up to vote!
The City of London Corporation Press Release provides more detail.
Continue readingDid you ever hanker after a coat of arms? Well, in preparation for the role of Sheriff, one arrived today from the College of Arms:
With our promotion of Dr Guy’s excellent biography, we get flak from time to time for saying that Gresham’s Law is best expressed as “good money drives out bad”.
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Toast To The Immortal Memory Of Charles Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870)
Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli
Remarks to the City Pickwick Club at the George & Vulture, London, 25 March 2019
Continue reading17 March 2019
Election of Sheriffs for the City of London – Monday, 24th June 2019
Candidature of Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli FCCA Chartered FCSI(Hon) FBCS
To the Liverymen of the City of London
My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Common Hall
With a sense of honour and enthusiasm, I offer myself to the Livery for election at Common Hall to be held at Guildhall on Monday, 24th June, at 12 noon. My colleagues on the Court of Aldermen support my candicacy, as they did last year, as their candidate for the ancient office of Sheriff of the City of London for 2019/20. If a poll is demanded, I would like to ask for your support by voting in my favour at the ballot on Monday, 8th July 2019, also at Guildhall.
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Some reflections on an old friend who has floated downriver…
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A talk given to one of my favourite communities:
“Stand Up Or Stand Down”
Gresham Society AGM & Dinner
14 February 2019, National Liberal Club
The Gresham Society is a very serious organisation. A Gresham lecture is supposed to be a serious intellectual occasion. A Gresham Society address therefore should be an especially heavy and ponderous event. I hope to disappoint. Continue reading
I was delighted to see the final struck coin for next year’s quincentenary celebrations of Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579). We, Z/Yen, ordered them to contribute to the celebrations. The coin was designed by Xenia Mainelli (yes, a relation, one of my two cherished daughters). This is the culmination of a four year, £250,000 project. Yes, this has been rather a “challenge coin“. Continue reading
London, 29 October 2018: The Worshipful Company of World Traders is delighted to announce that it has broken the Guinness World Record for the “most nationalities in a simultaneous popular music sing-along”.
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/415296-most-nationalities-in-a-simultaneous-popular-music-sing-along
On 8 October 2018, with support from Goodenough College and Voices of London, the Worshipful Company of World Traders set a new record with 245 people from 84 nationalities singing “Imagine”, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”, and “Mama Mia!”. London Business School set a record for 72 nationalities in 2016.
The attempt was the brainchild of Master of the World Traders 2017-2018, Professor Michael Mainelli, who decided that the World Traders could do something to celebrate inclusion during times of apparent division, “Our Company motto is ‘Commerce and honest friendship with all’. With trade wars popping up everywhere, our idea was to show global unity here in London with everyone around the world. The World Traders are delighted to be the first Livery Company of the City of London to achieve a Guinness World Record.
Setting a Guinness World Record is a demanding task. Independent Witnesses with experience of checking passports are requisite, and so the World Traders recruited Martin Lloyd, author of “The Passport: The History Of Man’s Most Travelled Document” for the attempt, as well as a legal witness from Mishcon de Reya. We also needed six Stewards, each responsible for a zone with a maximum of 50 singers, who had to verify that all the singers participated. Stewards and witnesses had to sign a confirmation that they were satisfied with the all aspects of the event that were under their jurisdiction. Mary Hardy, the Choirmaster, and Norman Rose, the pianist, ran everyone through their paces twice over.
Lars B Andersen at the tensest moment.
Lars B Andersen, the Liveryman of the World Traders who coordinated the record attempt, said: “In the end, we uploaded more than 53 GB of data in 44 files to prove that our attempt was valid. After a lot of work planning this event, we were so pleased to hear that Guinness World Records approved our record on 24 October.”
Rebecca Matthews, Director of Goodenough College, commented, “Goodenough College is home to postgraduate students of over 80 different nationalities. We are incredibly proud of our strong links with the Worshipful Company of World Traders and share the same belief in (intellectual) ‘Commerce and Honest Friendship with all’. As such we were pleased to be able to celebrate our unique diversity by taking part in this World Record attempt. I know that our many talented Members were honoured to be able to represent themselves, their home nation and Goodenough College on the evening, and it was a fitting event to demonstrate the unique culture fostered here at Goodenough.”
I finished my year with a fantastic “Master’s at Home” event at Gresham College. The evening was given some extra zest by the appearance of the Lord Mayor’s Sheriffs, Elizabeth Green and Alderman Vincent Keaveny to receive a cheque for the Lord Mayor’s Appeal.
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