Organisational structure

The Town Clerk and Chief Executive leads the City of London Corporation’s staff under the policy guidance of the Court of Common Council and the Policy and Resources Committee in a visible, inspirational, and inclusive manner, ensuring the economic, efficient, and effective delivery of the City Corporation’s policies, and public, charitable, and private services.

He ensures the strategic objectives of the organisation are being vigorously pursued and that high standards of conduct and performance are maintained throughout the organisation.

He conducts meetings of the Court of Common Council, the Court of Aldermen and Common Hall on behalf of the Lord Mayor, is the principal advisor on matters of policy through the Policy and Resources Committee and is the Electoral Registration Officer.

The Town Clerk's department is responsible for a number of areas of work, including servicing meetings of the Court of Common Council and Court of Aldermen, their committees, sub-committees and working parties.

The Town Clerk chairs his Senior Leadership team on a weekly basis. It plays a key role in agreeing strategy and reviewing performance across the organisation to ensure it is world-class in everything it does. The team focuses on key priorities including promoting Financial and Professional Services competitiveness and technology; making the City a world leading destination; and ensuring it is a leader in achieving net zero and a global centre for green finance and expertise; it is also working to reset the City Corporation’s relationship with residents and helping our SMEs thrive.

The work of this and other groups helps provide Members and the public with the assurance that matters coming to committee for decision have received appropriate oversight at a senior level.

The Chamberlain, Caroline Al-Beyerty, is the Chief Financial Officer of the City of London Corporation and Head of Profession for Finance across the service and corporate departments and institutions. Her team drives innovations in technology and ensures the effective financial management of the City Corporation’s affairs. As the Chief Investment Officer, the Chamberlain is responsible for the City Corporation's local and private trust funds.

The Chamberlain’s team has key enabling functions for how the organisation does business, through the Digital Information & Technology Service and Commercial Services. The Commercial Service is a key component in the transformation of how the City Corporation manages change, its project portfolio and how it purchases and pays for the goods, works and services it needs.

The Chamberlain is also an essential ceremonial figure for the City Corporation, playing a vital role in the installation of new Lord Mayors and administering the admission to the Freedom of The City. She is also responsible for constituting new City Livery Companies and interpreting and amending their ordinances and charters.

The City Comptroller & City Solicitor, Michael Cogher, through his department is responsible for providing all legal services required by the City Corporation.

This includes providing legal advice to committees, departments, to the City Police Commissioner and to other organisations for whom the role is required to act as legal adviser (eg the Museum of London). The main areas covered include commercial property and land law, housing, litigation, employment law, contract law, planning, trusts and company law.

His department deals with over 2,000 new legal matters every year and this covers anything from heavyweight property acquisition and disposals to horse riding byelaws in Epping Forest.

Michael is also the City Corporation’s Monitoring Officer and Senior Information Risk Owner. As a result, his department is also home to the Information Governance Team, who advise in relation to data protection and Freedom of Information matters and to the Electoral Services Team who are responsible for City, Parliamentary and GLA elections and maintaining the City’s Electoral Registers.

The Chief Strategy Officer, Dionne Corradine, leads the Corporate Strategy and Performance Team driving an integrated and insightful approach to strategy, equity, equality, diversity and inclusion, planning, risk management, and Chief Officer governance across the City Corporation.

The team delivers and enables maximum impact on Corporate Plan outcomes by providing advice, quality assurance and insights, at the right time, to the right people so they can make the best possible decisions.​​​​​​​

Responsibilities also include optimising and aligning Corporate Performance and departmental Business Planning to deliver cross-cutting objectives. The team oversees Corporate Risks, making sure mitigations are in place to minimise disruption to strategy implementation, operations and services. It also ensures that equality and diversity are observed in corporate standards and in service delivery.

The team has an emphasis on collaboration and continuous improvement, maintaining the organisation's agility, responsiveness and readiness to tackle challenges and opportunities now and in the future.

The Executive Director of the Community and Children's Services Department, Judith Finlay, has responsibility to provide the necessary care and support to the City’s resident and worker population.

Her department covers people, housing, education, early help, children and adults social care and community services for residents which includes safeguarding and quality assurance, support to looked after children, virtual school, homelessness and rough sleeping, education and early years.

It also has a wider remit for both residents and workers in relation to public health (a shared service with the London Borough of Hackney), leisure and adult education. These services range from apprenticeships to adult skills and also include the provision of Barbican and Community Libraries across the Square Mile.

The department is responsible for the maintenance and repairs programme of our existing properties including the Barbican Estate, Middlesex Street Estate, Golden Lane Estate and ten other estates situated in six different London boroughs and for building new affordable homes.

Judith’s team is also responsible for commissioning and partnerships across services and London on such issues as community safety.

The Chief People Officer, Ali Littlewood, is the Head of Profession for Human Resources across the City Corporation. The HR function plays an important part in providing strategic and operational HR support across the organisation’s Corporate and Service Departments, as well as Institutions, playing a pivotal role in its people achieving success.

The HR team supports the whole life cycle of all City Corporation employees - from recruitment to colleagues moving on, and everything in between. This includes recruitment, performance management and learning and development, HR are the guardians of people management information and data recording which is key to modernising and transforming the City Corporation's services.

The team will also be launching the organisation’s first People Strategy which will be an important part of the employer/employee relationship. It will help create an exceptional, values-based work environment where people feel deeply connected with the City Corporation’s vision and values and have the skills, recognition, motivation and reward to deliver the Corporate Plan.

The role of the Deputy Town Clerk, Greg Moore, is to oversee the co-ordination of political and policy advice to the City Corporation's leaders and Members, the support of the Corporation’s decision-making processes, and a number of other key areas of cross-cutting corporate activity.

This involves the Governance & Member Services section, which supports more than 500 decision-making meetings each year; the programme management and private offices of the Lord Mayor and Chairman of the Policy & Resources Committee, through the Mansion House and the Office of the Policy Chairman; the City Corporation’s Strategic Security & Resilience service, helping to protect the City, ensure business continuity, and recovery; the organisation’s responsibilities as a police authority, in support of a safe and secure City; Corporate Health & Safety; Support Services for the wider Town Clerk’s department; and the London Metropolitan Archives, which house not only the City’s own records but those of many other bodies, serving as a public research centre specialising in London history.

Executive Director of Innovation and Growth, Damian Nussbaum, works to strengthen the UK’s Financial and Professional Services (FPS) competitiveness to create jobs and growth right across the UK and reinforce the UK’s position as the world's leading global hub for FPS to support a thriving economy.

His team also promotes and supports this offer globally by building and delivering the City Corporation’s leading international trade and investment programme. It works to improve access to key markets, as well as shape a world-class business and regulatory environment for UK-based firms and those doing business with and through the UK.

Additionally, the Department’s Destination City team is focussed on increasing footfall and bringing visitor spend back to pre-pandemic levels by seeking to enhance the area's attractiveness as a place to be for business, workers, visitors and residents.

The City Corporation has adopted a radical Climate Action Strategy which breaks new ground and sets out how the organisation will achieve net zero, build climate resilience and champion sustainable growth. This work is led by the department’s Climate Action Strategy Team.

As Executive Director of the Environment Department [starting 22 July 2024], Katie Stewart is responsible for the largest department within the City Corporation with 800 staff working across 25 sites, providing key front-line services to the City and beyond.

In the Square Mile the team deliver local authority and regulatory functions including planning and development; building control; highways and transportation; cleansing and waste; environmental health, licensing and trading standards.

Further afield, they manage more than 11,000 acres of amazing open spaces, including Epping Forest and Hampstead Heath, capturing 16,000 tonnes of carbon a year and attracting 25 million visitors.

The team also run the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium; the Heathrow Animal Reception Centre; provide animal health services London-wide; and, as the London Port Health Authority, check imported food and animal feed.

The Executive Director of Corporate Communications and External Affairs, Emily Tofield, is Head of the Communications Profession for all the institutions and organisations which make up the City of London Corporation. She is responsible for the strategic leadership of all external and internal communications, corporate affairs, and senior political and wider engagement work across the governing body of the Square Mile.

She is the principal communications and external affairs adviser to senior members and committees, ensuring communications teams across the organisations are supporting the Chair of Policy and Resources, the Mayoralty, the Shrievalty and the wider City Corporation to achieve its mission, corporate plan and organisational objectives.

Responsibility for the City Belonging Project and the City Corporation’s Sports Strategy also fall within this division.

Emily has extensive board-level experience as a communications, corporate affairs, reputation and transformation adviser. She joined the City Corporation from the University of Sussex where she was the Executive Director of Communications, Marketing and Advancement. Prior to this, she worked in the Civil Service, where she led the communications teams across the Ministry of Justice group, as well as leading a large information operations and policy division and a government shared service.

The City Surveyor and Executive Director of Property, Paul Wilkinson, is responsible through his department for the management of the City Corporation’s property investment and corporate real estate portfolios and major property/construction projects. In addition, Paul is responsible for the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) and the three wholesale markets at Billingsgate, New Spitalfield and Smithfield.

The City Corporation has significant property ownership in the Square Mile, with other investment ownerships in Westminster, Camden, Southwark and beyond, covering Inner and Outer London Boroughs.

The income generated on these assets helps support the public value goals of the organisation. Therefore, the City Surveyor is focused on maximising rental income and delivering long-term performance across the organisation’s investment property estates. It is also developing long-term redevelopment opportunities close to the City.

The City Surveyor’s Department oversees the asset management functions in relation to the City Corporation’s operational property portfolio, including flagship assets such as the Guildhall, Barbican Complex, the three wholesale markets and the Central Criminal Court. It provides repairs and maintenance, and facilities management services to all non-housing City Corporation property, including leading on the buildings element of the Corporation’s Climate Action Strategy (CAS). It provides strategic management to the City’s significant heritage portfolio, including scheduled monuments, listed buildings, historic open spaces, churchyards and cemeteries, public statuary, ceremonial furnishings, and historic carriages. 

It jointly oversees the Markets Co-location programme, Sailsbury Square development, Museum of London relocation and Barbican Renewal project.

The Remembrancer, Paul Wright, is one of the City's four Law Officers and the Office is responsible for the maintenance and protection of the City’s constitution. He is the City's Parliamentary Agent and the Parliamentary Agent for the Honourable the Irish Society, and the City's Chief of Protocol.

The Office was created in 1571 and was closely allied to the Monarch and the Court. This is reflected in some of the functions of Paul’s team today which include liaison between the City and the Royal Households and the Diplomatic Corps.

The Remembrancer’s Department also acts as a channel of communication between Parliament and the City. This means examination of, and briefing on, proposed legislation and amendments, liaison with Select Committees of both Houses and contact with Government officials dealing with Parliamentary Bills.

In addition, it organises events and hospitality on behalf of the City Corporation - from small receptions to major State occasions.