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Andrew Brown, Secretary and Chief Executive
020 7898 1785 (short biography)

Tom Joy, Director of Investments
020 7898 1115 (biog)

Ian Theodoreson, Chief Finance Officer
020 7898 1795 (biog)

Philip James, Head of Resource Strategy & Development
020 7898 1671 (biog)

Paul Lewis, Pastoral and Closed Churches Secretary and Bishoprics & Cathedrals Secretary
020 7898 1741 (biog)

Declan Kelly, Director of Libraries, Archives and Information Services
020 7898 1432 (biog)

Stephen Slack, Official Solicitor
020 7898 1704 (biog)

Saira Salimi, Deputy Official Solicitor
020 7898 1717 (biog)

Senior staff biographies

Andrew Brown
Andrew is the Commissioners' Secretary and Chief Executive.  A Chartered Surveyor, he took up post in 2003 having spent the previous eight and a half years as the Commissioners' first Chief Surveyor.  Prior to joining the Commissioners in 1994 he was a partner in a private practice firm of Chartered Surveyors based in central London but advising on investment property matters throughout the United Kingdom.  He is married with two grown-up children.  He currently sits on the investment committee of Lionheart (RICS Benevolent Fund) and is a director of the William Leech Foundation and Investment Company, based in Newcastle. 

Tom Joy
Tom is the Commissioners' Director of Investments and is responsible for oversight of the investment function and management of the Church Commissioners' multi-asset portfolio. Previously Tom worked as Chief Investment Officer of RMB Asset Management after a number of years at Schroder Investment Management. He started his career at Royal Sun Alliance Investment Management and is an associate member of the CFA Society of the UK. He is married with three young children. He is also a keen sportsman and time allowing plays golf and cricket and loves to ski.

Ian Theodoreson
Ian has been Chief Finance Officer for the National Church Institutions (including the Archbishops' Council, the Church Commissioners for England and the Church of England Pensions Board) since 2009.  Reporting to the Commissioners, he is responsible for the financial management and reporting for the three bodies, which have a combined annual turnover of around £350 million. He also coordinates strategic thinking on financial issues and oversees the operation of the national institutions' financial policy, planning and budget setting.  A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, he worked for ten years for Ernst & Young, rising to senior manager before moving into the charity sector, first as Finance Director with Save the Children (1987) and then in a wider role as UK Director of Corporate Resources with Barnardo's (1995), where he was responsible for finance, IT, property and facilities, HR and legal services.  In 2011 he was appointed chair of the Charity Finance Group (which he helped to found in 1987) and has held a number of sector-wide roles including serving on the original Charity Commission SORP (Statement of Recommended Practice) Committee and in making representations to Government on changes to the Pension Protection Fund Levy.

Philip James
Philip is the Head of the Resource Strategy and Development Unit of the NCIs' Finance and Resources Department. Educated at Bristol Grammar School and Birmingham University and on the staff of the Church Commissioners from 1988.  Previous head of Church Commissioners' policy unit.  Philip lives in Sevenoaks with his wife and two school age children.  He is minimalist in style, enjoys (watching) sports and refuses to acknowledge that fish can legitimately served as a main course.



Paul Lewis
Paul is Secretary to the Pastoral, Bishoprics & Cathedrals and Church Buildings (Uses & Disposals) Committees.  As such he manages the Commissioners' role in the funding of bishops and cathedrals, the provision of bishops' housing and in parish reorganisation and the disposal of church buildings closed for regular public worship.  He joined the Commissioners in 2004 and is a town planner by professional background.  He was Borough Planning Officer in Hastings and has previously worked in South Wales and Lancashire.  Paul is married with three school age children and lives on the south coast.  He is active in his local church where he has been churchwarden and he likes gardening and cooking.  Commuting from the south coast seems to have reduced his time for personal interests.  He claims this has made him "boring" but his colleagues disagree.  

Declan Kelly
Following a career at the BBC and before that the Department of Health, Declan joined the Commissioners in 2005.  He is the Church's first Director of Libraries and Archives (a post created following a detailed review of its documentary heritage).  He also heads our IT and Office Services departments.  A Chartered Librarian and Member of the Archives and Records Association, Declan received an MSc in Information Science after a first degree in physiology. He has also served as vice-Chair of the National Council on Archives. He is married with three teenage children and chairs his local primary school governing body.

Stephen Slack
In addition to his roles as Head of the Church of England Legal Office and Chief Legal Adviser to the Archbishops' Council and the General Synod, Stephen is also the Commissioners' Official Solicitor.  Educated at Aylesbury Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford Stephen served as a solicitor in private practice (1979-84) before taking senior legal roles with the Charity Commission, first in Liverpool then in Taunton, between 1984 and 2001, when he came to Church House.  Married with three children, Stephen enjoys gardening, music and history.

Saira Salimi
Saira has been the Commissioners' Deputy Official Solicitor since November 2011.  She trained as a solicitor in private practice, qualifying in 2001. After a short spell in private practice she moved in 2003 to join the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, drafting primary legislation (including parts of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games Act 2006). She was educated at the Lady Eleanor Holles School, Hampton, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In her spare time she is the Deputy Editor of the Statute Law Review and a Senior Contributing Editor to Jowitt's Dictionary of English Law. She lives in London.