City figures prominent in legal and financial services, London’s health and open spaces, and in planning and architecture, were among those honoured in the New Year’s list for 2015.

Former Lord Mayor and leading international lawyer Fiona Woolf was made a Dame, while veteran City Corporation elected Member Wendy Mead was awarded the OBE, and former City Planning Officer Peter Rees was awarded a CBE.

Fiona Woolf, who served as Lord Mayor 2013-14, was given her DBE for services to the legal profession, to diversity and to the City of London. Wendy Mead, currently Chairman of the Port Health & Environmental Services Committee, was honoured for her civic and community service in London, and Peter Rees was honoured for services to architecture and town planning.

Ex-Lord Mayor Woolf, a former President of the Law Society and a distinguished international energy lawyer, strongly promoted the role of women on boards and in other senior positions as part of her 'power of diversity' programme, which also included staging the London Pride dinner at Mansion House for the time. She also played a key part in the Inclusive Capitalism conference and debate, alongside an international role that saw her lead UK business delegations to 24 countries on four continents.

Wendy Mead, founding Chairman since 1994 of the campaign to save and support Barts Hospital (in which cause she remains very active), also served as Sherriff of London 2011-2012 and currently serves as Chairman of the Health Scrutiny sub-committee of the City of London. During her time as Chairman of the City’s Epping Forest committee she navigated a series of major challenges for this important 10,000 acres of London open space – and has also served widely on many key City committees, including the charitable City Bridge Trust and the boards of four major City education institutions. Currently she chairs the Port Health & Environmental Services committee which includes health on the commercial Thames from Teddington to the Essex/Kent coastline - and the City’s Animal Reception Centre at Heathrow.

Peter Rees’s long career as City Planning Officer began in 1985 and during his time at the City of London Corporation, the skyline and public realm of the key global business cluster known as the Square Mile around St Paul’s changed completely in response to ‘Big Bang’ and other forces of global change. During his career, which continues as a Professor of Places and City Planning at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, he helped develop and implement the planning policies that saw the replacement of 80% of the Square Mile’s office space, while preserving the best of the historic fabric (including important sightlines to St Paul’s) and greatly enhancing the streets and squares used by 400,000 City workers daily.