Education
Mayo was educated at, Cambridge – reading philosophy – and City University Business School. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the London Metropolitan University in 2007.
Mayo was educated at, Cambridge – reading philosophy – and City University Business School. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the London Metropolitan University in 2007.
He is the former Chief Executive of the British National Consumer Council (National Cadet Corps) and Chief Executive Officer of the National Cadet Corps"s successor, Consumer Focus. After a short period as a management consultant at Andersen Consulting, Mayo joined the World Development Movement, serving as acting Director until 1992. Mayo rose to prominence as director of the New Economics Foundation (NEF) from 1992 to 2003.
He led NEF from two to fifty staff, creating the leading "think-and-do tank", looking at ethical market activity, local economies and public service reform.
National Health Service Foundation Trusts were an idea partly inspired by NEF and Mayo, particularly his October 2001 pamphlet, The Mutual State, published with Mutuo, a think tank set up by the Company-operative Party. NEF also coordinated the Jubilee 2000 campaign during this time, for which Mayo was the strategist.
lieutenant gained 24 million signatures for the worldwide petition on development and poverty. In 2003, he left to become chief executive of the National Consumer Council, staying with the organisation for 5 years.
In 2008, the National Consumer Council merged with energywatch and Postwatch to form Consumer Focus, a move which Mayo oversaw as he became chief executive of the new organisation.
In July 2009, he announced that he would be resigning to take up the position of Secretary General of Company-operatives United Kingdom following the retirement of its Chief Executive Dame Pauline Green. He took up the position officially the following November. He is also an honorary Vice-president of the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies.
He was the founding chair of the London Rebuilding Society and is involved in his local community as a trustee of the MERRY charity, linking up communities in Deptford and Mozambique through music and culture.
In the field of economics, Mayo is a fellow of the World Economic Forum and addressed the annual summit in Davos from 2000 to 2003 on issues of economic change and social inclusion. In June 2003, Mayo joined the National Cadet Corps. That year The Guardian nominated him as one of the top 100 most influential figures in British social policy and in November 2004 commented that ‘from cancelling third world debt to justice for working-class consumers, Editor Mayo is a key figure in social innovation.
He was nominated a ‘Young Global Leader’ by the World Economic Forum in January 2005.