As European Mayors are Asked to Lead on National Priorities, Bloomberg Philanthropies and LSE Launch the Region’s First-Ever Mayoral Leadership Program
$50 million investment establishes pioneering Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative to equip local governments with the capabilities to drive progress and deliver results
Unites expertise from the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Hertie School in Berlin, and more than a decade of work by Bloomberg Philanthropies to strengthen city hall capacity worldwide
Inaugural class of 30 mayors and 60 city officials hail from 17 countries, serving over 21 million residents
New York, NY & London, UK – As national governments across Europe—from the UK’s devolution deals to EU recovery packages—turn to mayors to lead on countrywide priorities, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) today announced the launch of the first-ever professional leadership and management program designed specifically for the region’s municipal chiefs.
Established with a $50 million investment from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative will be delivered by LSE Cities in collaboration with the Hertie School in Berlin. The program will provide mayors and top local government officials from cities across Europe with pioneering expertise to tackle problems, modernize services, strengthen operations, and improve people’s lives – advancing progress on the issues—from housing to transit to youth outcomes—residents care most about.
The inaugural class includes 30 mayors and 60 senior officials from 17 countries, representing over 21 million residents.
“We continue to expand our municipal leadership programs globally, because we’ve seen how well they work – and we want more cities to benefit,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies and 108th mayor of New York City. “As Europe increasingly looks to local governments to lead, we’re glad to join forces with the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Hertie School on this new initiative. Together, we can bring mayors and senior officials the tools, training, and peer networks they need to take on their biggest challenges – and succeed.”
“Cities are where our most complex, urgent challenges show up first, and so where real solutions often start,” said Professor Larry Kramer, President and Vice Chancellor of LSE. “Mayors across Europe are looking to lead—but to address the unique problems they face and deliver on new opportunities that emerge, they need sharp management, strong teams, and the skills to innovate. This is precisely what the Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative will help provide. I am deeply grateful to Mike Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies for their steadfast commitment to strengthening local governments here in the UK and across the globe. This Initiative is a testament to their visionary thinking—and to the enduring partnership between our two organizations to help the continent’s mayors push further and do more.”
National and global policies increasingly require local progress – and in recent years, Europe’s municipalities have served as intermediaries for infrastructure, resilience, and more. Still, they face a confluence of challenges. While attending to the fundamentals, they must also mitigate climate shocks, stem building shortages, manage rising costs, and meet growing resident demands alongside navigating complex central government rules and slow bureaucracies with strained budgets and stretched capacity.
The data underscores the need: 86% of mayors surveyed by Eurocities report that their city will have to innovate to overcome a lack of resources to deliver on their priorities—and two thirds rank leadership and commitment from mayors and senior municipal officers as the most important factors to achieve this.
The Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative will equip these urban leaders with the strategies, skills, and networks to meet the moment. Through the nine-month intensive classroom, field-based, and capacity-building training, they will learn evidence-backed strategies from world-class faculty, researchers, and policy leaders on how to drive performance, work across departments, mobilize collaborations, and marshal solutions that deliver tangible results for citizens.
The 30 mayors of the inaugural class include:
ALBANIA:
- Mayor Emiriana Sako of Durrës, Albania
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA:
- Prime Minister Nihad Uk of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
CROATIA:
- Mayor Tomislav Tomašević of Zagreb, Croatia
CYPRUS:
- Mayor Charalambos Prountzos of Nicosia, Cyprus
FINLAND:
- Mayor Daniel Sazonov of Helsinki, Finland
- Mayor Niko Kyynäräinen of Lahti, Finland
- Mayor Piia Elo of Turku, Finland
GERMANY:
- Lord Mayor Alexander Vogt of Halle, Germany
- Lord Mayor Sven Schoeller of Kassel, Germany
- Lord Mayor Martin Ansbacher of Ulm, Germany
GREECE:
- Mayor Stelios Angeloudis of Thessaloniki, Greece
IRELAND:
- Chief Executive Richard Shakespeare of Dublin, Ireland
- Mayor John Moran of Limerick, Ireland
ITALY:
- Mayor Stefano Lo Russo of Turin, Italy
- Mayor Giacomo Possamai of Vicenza, Italy
NETHERLANDS:
- Mayor Roelof Bleker of Enschede, Netherlands
- Mayor Wim Hillenaar of Maastricht, Netherlands
NORWAY:
- Governing Mayor Eirik Lae Solberg of Oslo, Norway
POLAND:
- Mayor Aleksandra Kosiorek of Gdynia, Poland
- Mayor Aleksander Miszalski of Krakow, Poland
- Mayor Konrad Fijołek of Rzeszów, Poland
ROMANIA:
- Mayor Dominic Fritz of Timișoara, Romania
SPAIN:
- Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida of Madrid, Spain
TURKEY:
- Mayor Cemil Tugay of Izmir, Turkey
UK:
- Council Leader Lynn Williams of Blackpool, UK
- Council Leader Dimitri Batrouni of Newport, UK
- Mayor Oliver Coppard of South Yorkshire, UK
- Mayor Richard Parker of West Midlands, UK
- Mayor Tracy Brabin of West Yorkshire, UK
UKRAINE:
- Mayor Ihor Sapozhko of Brovary, Ukraine
“In West Yorkshire, we don’t just believe in local leadership – we prove its power every day,” said Mayor Tracy Brabin of West Yorkshire, UK. “Across the UK and Europe, mayors are getting things done – rebuilding trust, hope and opportunity, and delivering real change. The Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative will help us go even further, helping us to raise ambitions, learn from each other, and lead with confidence.”
“From an industrial capital to a hub of culture and innovation, Turin has gone through many transformations throughout its history,” said Mayor Stefano Lo Russo of Turin, Italy. “Our city has long benefited from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ support to advance local government, and the Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative will provide our team with even more. I am honored to join its inaugural class, and participate in a program that understands precisely what mayors need today, and where we belong: at the center of Europe’s future.”
“As Madrid rapidly grows, so too does our responsibility to grow by ensuring environmental, social, and economic sustainability, so that it remains one of the cities with the highest quality of life in the world,” said Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida of Madrid, Spain. “Public leadership today is about more than setting ambitious goals—it is also about delivering on them. I am proud to join the groundbreaking Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative to help our municipality do just that—and build towards our future.”
To kick off their participation in a four-day convening beginning today in London, the 30 mayors will receive keynote instruction and engage with global experts from Bloomberg Philanthropies, LSE, the Hertie School, UCL IIPP, and fellow peers including: Michael R. Bloomberg, 108th mayor of New York City and founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies; Mayor Sadiq Khan of London, UK; Professor Ricky Burdett, Director of LSE Cities and the Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative; Professor Dr. Andrea Römmele, Dean of Executive Education and Professor of Communication in Politics and Civil Society at the Hertie School; and more.
“Mayors are democracy’s frontline, grappling with today’s most pressing challenges – from climate change to migration, from housing to mobility,” said Professor Dr. Cornelia Woll, President of the Hertie School. “The Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative comes at exactly the right moment to strengthen the skills, networks, and capacity of city leaders across Europe. By uniting the Hertie School’s expertise with that of our partners at Bloomberg Philanthropies and the London School of Economics and Political Science, this program will provide mayors and their teams with the knowledge and support they need to innovate, govern effectively, and deliver for their citizens, and we are proud to contribute to this transformative Initiative.”
Two top officials selected by each mayor will begin their participation in the Initiative in December with an immersive classroom experience in Berlin. Through the program, these officials will also support their mayor in overseeing a ten-member city team that will develop an innovative approach to solve a pressing, resident-facing challenge.
The Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative builds on more than 10 years of work led by Bloomberg Philanthropies to advance mayoral leadership and local government innovation across the globe. The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, housed at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, has to date trained 387 mayors and over 2,400 senior city officials—including 8 in 10 of America’s big city mayors and 9 of England’s mayoral combined authorities. With initiatives that operate today in over 900 city halls, tens of thousands of mayors and municipal officials receive support from these efforts to better the lives of the hundreds of millions of residents they collectively serve.
The local governments joining the Initiative will benefit from this global community of practice, and learnings from peers in city halls across the region and around the world.
About Bloomberg Philanthropies:
Bloomberg Philanthropies invests in 700 cities and 150 countries around the world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. The organization focuses on creating lasting change in five key areas: the Arts, Education, Environment, Government Innovation, and Public Health. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloomberg’s giving, including his foundation, corporate, and personal philanthropy as well as Bloomberg Associates, a philanthropic consultancy that advises cities around the world. In 2024, Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $3.7 billion. For more information, please visit bloomberg.org, sign up for our newsletter, or follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads, Facebook, and X.
About the London School of Economics and Political Science:
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is an internationally renowned university specializing in the social sciences. As one of the most international universities in the world, the School’s diversity of people, ideas, and interests make it a thriving center for research, education, and public engagement. Established in 1895, the original vision of LSE as “a community of people and ideas, founded to know the causes of things, for the betterment of society” remains true to this day. It continues to use its research-led expertise to influence policy and help tackle the planet’s most pressing problems. For more information, please visit lse.ac.uk.
About LSE Cities:
LSE Cities is an international center that investigates the complexities of the contemporary city. It carries out research, graduate and executive education, advisory and engagement activities in London and abroad. Extending LSE’s century-old commitment to the understanding of urban society, LSE Cities investigates how complex urban systems are responding to the pressures of growth, change, and globalization with new infrastructures of design and governance that both complement and threaten social equity and environmental sustainability. For more information, please visit lse.ac.uk/cities.
About the Hertie School:
The Hertie School is a private university based in Berlin, Germany, accredited by the state and the German Science Council. It prepares exceptional students for leadership positions in government, business, and civil society. Interdisciplinary and practice-oriented teaching, first-class research, and an extensive international network set the Hertie School apart and position it as an ambassador of good governance, characterized by public debate and engagement shape tomorrow. For more information, please visit hertie-school.org.
Media Contact:
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