31 December 2008
HM Queen honours former Lord Mayor of City of London David
Lewis
Former Lord Mayor Alderman David Lewis has been awarded a
Knighthood in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours, announced today.
Alderman Lewis – now Sir David Lewis – was Lord Mayor of the
City of London and elected head of the City of London Corporation
from November 2007 to November 2008 after serving as Sheriff for
the previous year.
During his year in office as Lord Mayor Sir David worked widely
worldwide on behalf of the UK’s international financial services
industry, leading business visits to two dozen countries and
spending three working months’ abroad and also hosting meetings
with many financial and political leaders visiting from
overseas.
Sir David Lewis' career as corporate lawyer was spent entirely
with global firm Norton Rose which he joined in 1969 and for whom
he served six years as Senior Partner. During a distinguished
career Sir David advised many major global businesses on access to
global markets, public listings, IPOs, corporate finance and
mergers and acquisitions.
Born in the Far East, Sir David was educated at the Dragon
School and St Edward’s School, Oxford, and at Jesus College, Oxford
(where he is an Honorary Fellow).
Sir David’s extensive and lifelong voluntary work – much of it
for educational causes and in particular for Oxford – includes
serving as a trustee of charitable trusts such as the Oxford
University Law Faculty Trust, the Mansion House Scholarship Scheme,
the Lord Mayor’s Trust for Charities, and the Norton Rose
Charitable Foundation. A governor of the Dragon School (Chairman
2003-2008), Sir David served as governor of Oxford Brookes
University 1995-2003 and joined the Oxford University Chancellor’s
Court of Benefactors in 1997. Sir David is an almoner/governor of
Christ’s Hospital, churchwarden of St Margaret Lothbury and sits as
a City magistrate.
During his year in office, Sir David’s dual charitable appeals
were for ORBIS and Wellbeing of Women, both practical health
promotion agencies. ORBIS works in some of the world’s poorest
countries to eliminate avoidable blindness and Wellbeing of Women
funds research into clinical issues affecting women’s reproductive
health.
Elected Alderman for the Ward of Broad Street in 2001, Sir David
subsequently served on key committees of the City of London
Corporation and is a member of the Solicitors’ Company, the
Fletchers’ Company and the Welsh Livery Guild.
David Lewis married Theresa – now Lady Lewis - in 1970 and they
have two married children, a son and a daughter.
Ends
Notes to editors
The City of London Corporation: The City of London Corporation,
which provides local government services for the Square Mile, the
financial and commercial heart of Britain, works nationally and
internationally to maintain and enhance the City as a world-leading
international financial and business centre. Its other
special responsibilities and services to London and the wider UK
include the Barbican Arts Centre, the Central Criminal Court at the
Old Bailey, 10,000 acres of open space including Hampstead Heath
and Epping Forest, three wholesale food markets, two inner-London
City Academies, the City Bridge Trust, economic regeneration
programmes in neighbouring boroughs and acting as London’s Port
Health Authority. The Lord Mayor of the City of London (currently
Ian Luder, an eminent tax accountant) works extensively at home and
abroad to promote the City.
Press enquiries: Greg Williams, 020 7332 1455, 07889 167 205
Release 001/Serial 007