Ep289 The Rt Hon. The Lady Mayor, Dame Susan Langley, DBE: Speaking Truth to Power

Today’s podcast is a first for the Voice of Insurance as this is the first time I have had an interview with a sitting Lady Mayor of London.
Sue Langley or, the Right Honourable, the Lady Mayor, Dame Susan Langley, DBE, to give her her full and formal title, has worked in the insurance industry for 28 years, with senior roles at Hiscox, within the Corporation of Lloyd’s and latterly as Chair of the board of Gallagher UK.
I have known her for over 20 of those years and throughout that time she has always been strong, direct, completely straightforward and down to earth.
So that’s why it was such a pleasure to meet her in her incredibly high-profile, but often misunderstood 800-year-old role.
Many of us might go our whole careers working in the City of London but remaining almost wholly ignorant of the workings of some of its most longstanding institutions.
So our talk demystifies what the Lord or Lady Mayor position means in 2026 and reveals how Sue discovered the path to becoming its 697th incumbent.
Ostensibly an apolitical role, nonetheless the modern Mayoralty has tremendous soft influence in the corridors of power, and as the UK’s effective ambassador for Financial and Professional Services, Sue gets to travel the globe representing all of us.
In this podcast we will learn what’s on top of Sue’s agenda for her year in post and I am sure what she says will give all the insurance practitioners listening plenty of good cheer.
I am also pleased to report that holding this great office hasn’t changed Sue in the slightest, in fact it is Sue who is doing a lot to make the role more relatable and relevant to our times.
Sue is also a physical representation of how the past decade has witnessed the Insurance sector stand up and be counted and start to take its rightful place in the Civic affairs of the City and country in which it trades.
Sue certainly won’t be the last Lord or Lady Mayor to be sourced from within the Insurance community and we should take a lot of encouragement from this.
So listen on to what is a really informal, enjoyable and enlightening discussion.
NOTES & LINKS:
More information on Sterling 20 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/britains-biggest-pension-funds-back-regional-growth-drive
And you can get involved in the Lord Mayor’s Appeal here: https://www.thelordmayorsappeal.org/
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com