Michael Bear

Michael Bear was the 683rd Lord Mayor of the City of London since the 12th of November 2010. He is the Alderman of the ward of Portsoken and was previously the Common Councilman and Deputy for that ward. In 2007 he was elected as one of two Sheriffs of the City of London.

Michael Bear was born in Nairobi, brought up in Cyprus and educated at Clifton College in Bristol. He studied Civil Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and an MBA at Cranfield University. He has held senior positions in both the property and construction industries. Over the last 33 years he has worked first in the international construction industry, including China and West Africa, for Balfour Beatty. In the City he was responsible for bringing the development at Spitalfields to a successful conclusion as Chief Executive of the Spitalfields Development Group. He is Regeneration Director at Hammerson plc and since 1993 Managing Director, Balfour Beatty Property Limited, working on their development and PFI/PPP projects. In the City he has assisted a number of UK and overseas companies to relocate and expand their businesses in new City and City Fringe.

Alderman Michael Bear is a leading figure in the property and construction industries and has a long history heading inner-city regeneration projects, for example Spitalfields, in the east of the City.  A trained civil engineer, Alderman Bear is Regeneration Director at Hammerson plc, MD of Balfour Beatty Property and a non-executive director of Arup.

He has served on the Court of Common Council at the City of London Corporation as Member, Deputy and Alderman for the Ward of Portsoken and has served on many committees. He is a keen supporter of the Livery movement and serves on the Courts of both the Paviors’ Company and the Chartered Surveyors’ Company.

His voluntary work includes charity projects in South Africa, Bangladesh and throughout the UK. He is a Director of CRASH, Spitalfields Market Community Trust, The Drinking Fountain Association and is a Governor of the Sir John Cass Primary School and the London South Bank University. He served as Chairman of the public/private City Challenge Programme in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and as a Director of its successor body, Cityside Regeneration.