The New Zealand Anglican Church Pension Board has chosen Mark Wilcox as its next General Manager.

The Board Chairman, Merv Gaskin, says he’s delighted that Mark is taking up the challenge to succeed Gillian Robertson, who is about to retire.

“Gillian was a wonderful servant to this church,” says Merv. “She set the bar very high – and in Mark, we believe we have found the right person not only to safeguard and grow the assets entrusted to us, but to lead the Pension Board in the development of its services.

“Mark brings to his new role,” says Merv, “a wide range of financial service management skills, a deep desire to serve those who work in the Church – both clergy and lay people – and a leadership style which we believe will be beneficial.”

Mark Wilcox, who is 51, was the Chief Financial Officer with The Co-operative Bank between 2008 and 2012.

During that time he played a key role in steering the process whereby PSIS (the old name for the society) became a fully-fledged, registered bank.

The Co-operative Bank is a mutual organisation – which means it’s owned by and run for the benefit of its members – and Mark says one of his proudest achievements was designing a means of sharing surplus profits amongst the bank’s members.

He says he’s delighted “to be joining another values-based institution where the concept of mutuality is alive and well.”

Mark reckons that his whole career has prepared him for this opportunity. He can see his core strengths in strategic finance[1] and enterprise risk management[2] coming into play. He’s also looking forward to broadening his general management skills – and to exercising servant leadership.

In 2004, Mark had been to a seminar run by Bishop Tom Brown on that subject.

“For me,” says Mark, “that was an ‘aha’ moment. When I understood what servant leadership was about, I realised that my work and my faith could be aligned in a way that I’d never seen before.”

The Not for Profit nature of the Pension Board also appeals to Mark.

“At the heart of it, the Pension Board is about people, and that is a great attraction for me.

“But it’s also an organisation with some pretty serious commercial responsibilities.

“I like the thought that I can use my financial skills to support the retirement income needs of our people.

“My vision is that the Board can, in time, use its financial strength and expertise to fulfil a wider stewardship role for the Christian church and related agencies.

“I want us to be agile in the face of changing models of ministry. Can we broker more innovative means of supporting the financial goals of our people?

“I’d like to see the ethically-invested Koinonia KiwiSaver Fund, which today manages the savings of some 1500 Christians, grow significantly.

“The financial services industry today is all about risk management and the regulatory environment we operate under is becoming increasingly complex. Uppermost in my mind is that we continue to grow our funds safely.

“First and foremost, though, I want to maintain the good reputation the Pension Board has for financial stewardship.”

Mark was born and raised in Wanganui. While he was studying commerce at Victoria University he became organist at St Alban’s, Eastbourne – and that’s where he met his wife, the writer and science interpreter Sarah Wilcox (to sample Sarah’s work, check out the winter issue of Taonga magazine.)

Mark and Sarah brought up their three children in Lower Hutt, and while living there, they were parishioners at St Paul’s, Waiwhetu. About five years ago, the Wilcox family moved into Wellington, and they’ve now become regulars at Wellington Central Baptist Church.

On Friday evenings, Mark and Sarah also help out at the Stillwaters Community, which is an intentional Christian community in Wellington’s Te Aro.

“It’s a place,” says Mark, “that provides comfort, solace and open arms to those who live in the inner city and sometimes have nowhere else to turn. I find that the hours we spend at Stillwaters are very grounding.”

Mark and Sarah have also kept ties to the Anglican Church and are members of St Paul’s Chorale, which is a choir at the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul.

In his spare time, Mark is a keen mountain runner. He also offers support to small businesses via the organisation Business Mentors New Zealand – and has recently joined the boards of World Wildlife Fund New Zealand and the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir, in which one of his sons sings.

Mark Wilcox will take up his Pension Board role later this month.

Mark’s predecessor Gillian Robertson, who has been with the Board since 1985, retires at the end of October. In the next issue of Taonga mag, there’ll be a story about her contributions.

#

Footnotes:

[1] Mark says strategic finance is the art of making financial decisions so an organisation can meet its long term goals – as distinct from book-keeping, and reporting.

[2] Enterprise risk management is about appraising the strategic risks an organisation faces, and taking steps to treat those risks while developing contingency plans so that if the worst happens an organisation can still meet its goals.