Patron

Justin Welby

Archbishop of Canterbury

We are really excited to announce that Archbishop Justin Welby has chosen to become a patron of Christians Against Poverty! Watch his video below to find out why he chose CAP.

Core Team

Matt Barlow

CEO - UK and International

Matt joined CAP at the beginning of 1999 and, having spent seven years building the systems and infrastructure to support CAP’s growth, was appointed Chief Executive in 2006. As well as navigating CAP through significant growth, Matt was recently named as 'Best Leader' in The Sunday Times Best Small Company to Work For awards.

John Kirkby

Founder

Through working in the consumer finance industry for 17 years, John was able to gain valuable management experience and knowledge that equipped him with the skills he required to build Christians Against Poverty in the UK and now also in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. John is the International Director of Christians Against Poverty, speaking and working across the world to challenge people to reach out to the poor and needy. Read more of his story here.

Paula Stringer

Executive Director

Prior to joining CAP, Paula held a senior role as Head of Production & Operations for BBC Sport where she managed all operational parts of the business delivering the Olympics, MOTD, Wimbledon, the World Cup and, well everything ‘sport’ that goes on the BBC. She has considerable experience leading teams and is a very creative and effective problem solver. With her entrepreneurial and leadership gifts, Paula has a whole range of experience including running a hotel, setting up sports camps across the UK for a charity, and even running a successful local business with her husband. Having been through their fair share of trials as a family, and after debt counselling saved her marriage, Paula joined CAP in 2018 as Executive Director. She is passionate about pairing her life experiences with her wealth of skills to make a difference to those still on their debt free journey.

Simon Wilce

Director of Operations

Simon joined CAP as a caseworker in 2003 upon completing his Law degree. After working up to manage multiple departments, he moved abroad to take up the role of National Director of CAP New Zealand in 2009, where he saw the charity grow from partnering with four churches to nearly 200. Simon returned to the UK in 2013 to take up the role of Director of Client Services and has recently become Director of Operations. He has a real passion for seeing the church empowered to reach out to those in need in every corner of the world.

Ellie Gage

Director of People and Culture

Ellie joined CAP in 2005 from a background in the legal and financial sectors, and has since worked her way through the support services side of the charity to her current leadership role. Her passion for CAP is that it takes people from a point of desperation and transforms them into people with hope for the future. Ellie leads the people and culture strategy for CAP ensuring that we are able to really make an impact and help others because we have an excellent workforce that are themselves well equipped and cared for.

Angie Rusbridge

Director of Finance & Compliance

Angie joined CAP in 2016 and is a Fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, with extensive strategic financial management experience in the public sector. In her previous post in the NHS she managed a varied portfolio including contracting, quality, finance and analytics. Angie’s passion for CAP started in 2009 in a voluntary capacity, opening the first CAP Debt Centre in Norfolk and serving as Centre Manager for five years.

Dan Lane

Director of Fundraising and Marketing

Dan joined Christians Against Poverty in 2007 and worked directly supporting people in finding freedom from debt. Having spent three years working in and then managing teams within Client Services, Dan moved to work as Executive Assistant to the Founder and the CEO. From there he worked on a variety of projects charity wide, including leading the launch of the CAP Job Club and CAP Release Group services. in 2017 Dan took on the role of Director of Fundraising and Marketing. Dan is passionate about the transformation that happens when people find freedom through CAP’s services and hopes you will be too!

Jon Day

Director of Technology and Transformation

Jon started his career in technology at a US investment bank before leaving after a few years to join the charity sector. He has managed IT projects and programmes at Christian Aid and the British Red Cross. Before joining CAP in 2014, he headed up planning and reporting at the Red Cross working with the CEO and senior team on charity wide strategy. Jon's family were CAP Life Changers for many years and Jon increasingly hoped to be able to join CAP one day. Jon is passionate about using technology to enable CAP to bring hope, life and freedom to those who are desperately in need of it.

Trustees

Roger Hattam

Trustee Director - Chairman

Roger brings a wealth of management experience to the board, having held board-level positions in both financial services and energy sectors, as well being appointed General Manager of a social enterprise that provides renewable energy solutions to the world’s poorest people. Roger first came across CAP over ten years ago while working in the UK banking sector, and he was impressed by CAP’s professionalism and impact. Roger joined the trustees in 2016.

Tim Morfin

Trustee Director

Tim is a management graduate with experience of organisational development in a large multinational company. From his previous commercial experience, he brings a particular focus upon human resources and strategic planning. For the past ten years, Tim has been Chief Executive of TLG – a national Christian charity educating young people at risk of exclusion from school. Tim's passion is for the Church to be engaged fully in its locality, sharing the love of God in very practical ways, bringing hope and enabling change.

Lisa Pearce

Trustee Director

Lisa is CEO at Open Doors UK and Ireland. Lisa began her career as a graduate trainee at Reuters, where she eventually became product manager for UK and Ireland equity markets. There followed various management roles at the NHS and in telecoms, leading to Head of Negotiations and Development at a major telecoms company. In 2006, Lisa was asked to join the Board of Open Doors because of her background in business development. Lisa joined the staff team in 2009 first as COO and then Deputy CEO, and in December 2014 she was appointed to the role of CEO. Lisa is passionate about mission, mercy and justice, and supporting the persecuted Church. Lisa lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and three children.

Matthew Frost

Trustee Director

Matthew has been Chief Executive of Tearfund since October 2005. Previously, he worked for DFES and McKinsey, where he specialised in strategy and organisational leadership. He has served overseas with Medair in a leadership capacity and set up their aid programme in Afghanistan. Matthew is married to Katharine, has four young children and is a member of Holy Trinity Church in Claygate, Surrey.

Simon Gates

Trustee Director

Simon is a Senior Manager for BNP Paribas, a European investment bank, working with large UK companies. Simon originally qualified as a Chartered Accountant, and for many years has been passionate about helping people in financial difficulty, especially in his local church. He brings strong business experience, understanding of regulation and a big heart to see God rescue people through CAP. Simon became a trustee in 2016 after supporting CAP for many years.

Jane Pleace

Trustee Director

Jane is Tearfund's Global Fundraising Director and is responsible for raising the income that enables Tearfund to work with churches and partners in poor communities around the world. She has experience developing fundraising, communications and marketing strategies in the charity sector. Before joining Tearfund Jane led fundraising teams at charities including World Vision, Oxfam and United Bible Societies. She lives in Somerset and enjoys worshipping at Bath Abbey.

Chine McDonald

Trustee Director

Chine is the Media Content and PR Lead at Christian Aid. Prior to that, she was director of communications at the Evangelical Alliance, including running threadsuk.com – an online collective for people in their 20s and 30s exploring faith and life. She read theology & religious studies at Cambridge University before training as a newspaper journalist. Chine is the author of 'Am I Beautiful?' – a book published in 2013 which explores body image among Christian women – and is also a regular speaker and writer on race, faith and gender. She loves taking the opportunity to make faith accessible and relevant within the mainstream world and regularly gets to do that through writing and broadcasting, including being a contributor to BBC Religion & Ethics programmes such as Thought for the Day, the Daily Service, Pause for Thought and Prayer for the Day. Chine lives in London with her husband Mark and their young son.

Joy Blundell

Trustee and Church Leader representative

Joy oversees Social Justice and Influence at Alive Church, a multi-site church in the East of England and with her husband Paul is Location Pastor of Alive Lincoln. She has a heart for the restoration and transformation of cities through the mobilisation of the local church and seeing people find wholeness and purpose in Jesus. Joy is the founding Director of Acts Trust, a Lincoln based charity connected to Alive, which has the aspiration vision of poverty alleviation in the city. Joy and Paul have been married for 15 years and they have two children, Finley and Poppy. Joy loves fresh air, walking in the hills, eating good food and drinking wine with friends.

Sarah Cutts

Centre representative

Sarah is our CAP Debt Centre Manager and CAP Job Club Manager in Wakefield. She joined CAP in 2010 from a background in marketing and customer services. She spent two years working in head office in the Church Partnership department, before becoming Debt Centre Manager in Wakefield in 2012. Her passion for CAP is in the way it gets alongside people, meets them where they are with no judgment, embraces them with God's love and brings hope for the future. Sarah manages a team in Wakefield running three different CAP services with enthusiasm, love and encouragement.

Hannah White

Staff representative

Hannah joined our Supporter Engagement phone team in 2015 as a leadership intern, having graduated in French and Hispanic Studies at Liverpool. She discovered an ability to drive and inspire, a love for vision and leadership and a passion to make things better, taking on the role of supervising the Evening Supporter phone team a year later. Over the past year, Hannah has been involved with several projects across the charity, most recently around GDPR compliance. Hannah is passionate about our impact - seeing us help more people’s lives be transformed.

Friends

Martin Lewis

Money Saving Expert

Martin Lewis OBE, Money Saving Expert, is an award-winning campaigning TV and radio presenter, newspaper columnist, charity founder, author and, according to Google, the most searched-for British man.