Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi

Edoardo Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi (born 19 November 1983) is a British property developer. He is the founder and chief executive of Banda, a property development and interior design company. Since September 2019, he has been engaged to Princess Beatrice of York.

Mapelli Mozzi is the son of Count Alessandro "Alex" Mapelli-Mozzi, former British Olympian and member of an Italian noble family whose ancestral seat is the Villa Mapelli Mozzi in the Bergamo region of Italy. Although "technically a count himself", Mapelli Mozzi's title is not officially recognised or used in the United Kingdom. The title was created in the nobility of Italy in 1913.His mother is Nicola "Nikki" Williams-Ellis (born Nicola Diana Burrows), who was married to businessman and Conservative politician Christopher Shale until his death in 2011. In 2017, she married the sculptor David Williams-Ellis. Mapelli Mozzi has an older sister, Natalia Alice Yeomans (born 1981), and a younger half-brother, Alby Shale (born 1991).

Mapelli Mozzi's interest in property was sparked by his mother's career in commercial real estate. He attended Radley College but did not want to study property; instead, he attained a master's degree in politics at the University of Edinburgh. At the age of 23, he started Banda, a property development and interior design company. His stated strategy is designing homes for affluent clients in "undervalued" parts of London. This has been challenged by property experts on Twitter and Forbes, who argue that "there is nothing undervalued in Notting Hill", where Mapelli Mozzi's latest project is located, and describe the district as "a super prime residential destination".

Mapelli Mozzi holds directorships in a number of companies, some of them together with his mother, Nikki Williams-Ellis, and his brother-in-law, Tod Yeomans. Ahead of the 2016 London mayoral election, Mapelli Mozzi wrote an article for Property Week, urging the future mayor to insist on redevelopment projects in central London. He has also criticized politicians Andrea Leadsom and Jeremy Corbyn.

Cricket Builds Hope

Mapelli Mozzi is a co-founder of the British-Rwandan charity "Cricket Builds Hope", which aims to use cricket as "a tool for positive social change" in Rwanda. Previously known as the Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation (RCSF), the charity was founded in 2011 to build Rwanda's first grass wicket cricket ground, now known as Gahanga International Cricket Stadium. Mapelli Mozzi's stepfather Christopher Shale had come up with the idea for the charity, but he died before he could get it off the ground. Shale's family and friends set up the foundation after his death; Mapelli Mozzi's half-brother, Alby Shale, is currently on the board of trustees. The charity's patrons are Jonathan Agnew, Brian Lara, Heather Knight, Ebony-Jewel Rainford-Brent, Sam Billings and Makhaya Ntini. In 2012, Mapelli Mozzi cycled 100 kilometres (62 mi) overnight in London in the Nightrider Challenge to raise funds for the foundation.

Mapelli Mozzi was engaged to marry American architect Dara Huang until they broke up in 2018. They have a son, Christopher, born in 2016.

In 2018, after his breakup with Huang, Mapelli Mozzi started a relationship with Princess Beatrice of York, whom he had known since childhood. His family have been close friends with her parents, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York, for decades. Following his proposal in Italy, the couple's engagement was announced on 26 September 2019. Mapelli Mozzi was reported to have designed the engagement ring himself, along with British jeweller Shaun Leane.