Our Trustees/Directors

Neil Walker

CHAIRMAN

Neil is married to Christine and devotes much of his time to the church in Walsall in the West Midlands where he is an Elder.  Most of his career has been spent as an educator in a variety of settings.  He is a Director of Partnership UK and is Trustee of four local Almshouse Charities.

Richard Canham

Richard took early retirement from the retail finance industry in November 2014 in order to spend more time on charitable activities. Richard currently lives in Enfield and is part of Albany Church, where he served as one of the church leaders for over 30 years. He is also a trustee of other organisations including Counties (Deputy Chairman) and a trustee/Director of several local churches and organisations.

Paul Withams

Paul is married with two grown up sons and lives in Chelmsford, Essex. He has held a number of church leadership roles over the years, primarily in premises management and administration. He is now retired following a 35 year career in Information Technology having latterly worked for the UK services arm of the Japanese company Fujitsu. His main hobby / interest is sound engineering, both for studio recording and live events.

Richard Jones

Richard is married and lives in Liverpool and has two grown up daughters. He attended West Derby Evangelical Church since childhood, serving as Elder and Trustee from 2000 to 2020 and now attends another independent church in Liverpool. Richard has been encouraged by the growth of the church, the faithfulness of its people and the positive work in the community. As a Chartered Quantity Surveyor, Richard has worked in the construction industry since 1989 delivering a range of consultancy services for public and voluntary sector organisations. A particular expertise is in education building consultancy for local authorities, dioceses and multi-academy trusts. He has managed over £1bn of expenditure on schools for central government with global consultancy Arcadis. In 2022, Richard moved to be Head of Buildings for DBE Services Ltd. – a company owned by northern dioceses in the Church of England – serving hundreds of schools on capital programmes. Richard also runs a small property rental business. Loving the outdoors, Richard enjoys travelling with the family, walking and long-distance bicycle rides.

Susanna Sanlon

Susanna is married and lives in Tunbridge Wells. She has two sons. Susanna grew up in a Brethren church in Nottingham and was baptised there as a teenager.  Since marrying her husband, Peter, she has worshipped mainly in Anglican churches. She serves alongside him as he ministers at Emmanual Anglican Church, Tunbridge Wells.  Emmanuel is a church planted from their former Church of England church and Peter has been the full-time minister there since his decision to leave the Church of England in 2019.  Susanna is a Chartered Town Planner, and has worked in private practice for over twenty years working on a range of projects, from entire new communities to small scale individual dwellings.  She has worked on numbers of church projects, assisting local churches wherever she can. Susanna is a busy mum, minister’s wife and planner – juggling the responsibilities of each of these roles.  She enjoys time with her family, walks, board games and coffee with friends. Her sons have recently caught the bug for supporting Nottingham Forest, so she has happily been making more frequent trips back to her home town in order to cheer on the reds with them.  

Dan Leafe

Dan is married to Susie. They divide their time between Bristol- where Dan's work as a barrister is based and Cornwall where Dan is one of the leaders of the Anchor Anglican Church, Fowey. The Anchor is a church plant outside the structures of the Church of England, Dan and others having made a decision to leave their parish church in 2019. It is part of the Anglican Network in Europe. Susie is the director of a charity called Anglican Futures which offers pastoral and practical support to clergy and laypeople with their "Anglican Future". Dan and Susie's spare time is spent in all things Cornish- boats, beaches, food, football, and traditional singing. Most of all though, Dan is a tennis fanatic.

Simon David

Simon is married and has a daughter and two grown up sons. He lives in Portishead and for the last 30 years has attended Gordano Valley Church (GVC), an independent evangelical church.  Prior to this he worshipped at Roath Road Chapel. For over 25 years Simon was a trustee, and for five of those also the treasurer of GVC, whilst also being actively involved over the years in various other ministries.  More recently Simon has become involved in the town’s only foodbank, something he was instrumental in starting up many years ago. Simon’s varied career prior to 2011 involved working for various companies and consultancies, in management accounts, pensions and learning and development. Simon took a career change in 2011, when he was appointed Chief Executive of Haven Community (Centre). He managed all aspect of the centre that supported adults with complex needs, including staffing, payroll, accounts, training, H&S, creating policies, governance and transport.   He retired from Haven Community in the spring of 2024. Simon has served as trustee of a charity supporting the homeless and another providing young people with training for ministry and has volunteered with teams in Romania, and most recently providing humanitarian welfare support on the ground near the border with Ukraine.  Hill Walking, caravanning, photography and motorcycling are interests that occupy Simon’s time.