British financier and politician
Sir William Anthony Bowater Russell (born 15 April 1965) is a British financier who served as the 692nd Lord Mayor of the City of London from 2019 to 2021.[1]
Biography
Educated at Eton and Durham University, graduating B.A., Russell started his career in financial services at First Boston in 1987, and joined Merrill Lynch in 1992,[2] working in Hong Kong, New York and London, before leaving in 2006 for public service.[3][4]
Sheriff of the City of London for 2016–17, Russell was then elected Lord Mayor on 1 October 2019, taking office on 9 November 2019.[5][6]
In view of the global disruption to public life brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Russell was re-elected, on 29 September 2020, as Lord Mayor of London to serve a second term for 2021,[7] the first Lord Mayor to serve more than one term since William Cubitt, who was re-elected in 1861.[8] He is the fifth member of his family to have held this position.[9]
Russell represents Bread Street Ward as Alderman on the City of London Corporation since 2013.[10]
Russell is a Court Assistant to the Haberdashers' Company,[11] a Liveryman of the Feltmakers' and an Honorary Liveryman of the Paviors' Companies.[12]
He was knighted in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to "financial innovation, culture and wellbeing in the City of London, particularly during Covid-19".[13]
A keen cricketer, he is also a member of MCC,[14] and remains a member of the Advisory Board of Innovate Finance, an independent not-for-profit membership organisation serving the global FinTech community.[15]
Family
The only son of Anthony Russell, a stockbroker, he is in remainder to the family baronetcy,[16] created for his great-great-uncle, Charles Russell, founder of the eponymous law firm.
His mother, Charlotte née Bowater, was from a Kentish family of paper packagers;[17]
her father, Sir Ian Bowater GBE, was Lord Mayor of London for 1969–70, and his father Sir Frank Bowater, Lord Mayor for 1938–39.[5] Russell is the fifth member of his family to hold the position of Lord Mayor of London.[9]
British actor Damian Lewis is his maternal half-brother.[18][19]
In 1989, Russell married Hilary Chaplin: they have four children.
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