Langham Leadership
Our leaders consider it a privilege and blessing to be used by God to serve the global church through the ministry of Langham Partnership. Read more about these godly men and women with a heart to bring God’s Word to God’s people around the world.
Langham Partnership UKI National Director
John Libby
John joined the Langham Leadership Team in May 2016 as Executive Director for the UK and Ireland.
John is an ordained minister in the Church of England and comes to Langham after many years in Parish Ministry.
His job is to raise the profile, funding and administration, giving maximum support to our three international ministry streams. A place on the international executive team helps define strategy such that those three streams deliver maximum positive global impact.
John spent 16 years in international banking with significant experience in senior financial management in the UK and USA. Ordained in the Church of England, he spent 18 years as vicar of St. James, Carlisle. As a Christian entrepreneur, John built and fund-raised for charitable enterprises including the Kepplewray Trust, with connections in Africa.
Members of the Board of Trustees
Steve Osei-Mensah (Chair)
Steve has been on the Langham Partnership Board for a number of years. He is also a member of the board of MAF UK and MAF International. Steve has 34 years of business leadership experience in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. He has been a partner with both PwC & EY in consulting, a director/in senior management in the financial services industry (Barclays, L&G, & Cap Gemini), and a managing consultant in the Executive HR space. Steve is the Work Forum Director for LICC (London Institute for Contemporary Christianity). He combines this with his trustee roles and is also a mentor / coach and Ambassador for The IoD (Institute of Directors). Steve was recently ordained (September 2021) and serves as a part -time curate in a group of three parishes in Sevenoaks where he lives with his wife Emma. They have two grown daughters. Steve is passionate about aviation and is a qualified private pilot with UK and US licences.
Alan Johnston
Alan holds Non-Executive Director roles in the Financial Services Sector. After reading Economics and Accounting at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne he qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Armstrong Watson and remained with the firm throughout his career, latterly as Senior Partner, before retiring in 2018 after over 30 years with the firm. Alan is vice chair of the PCC of St. James Carlisle and a member of Chapter of Carlisle Cathedral. Alan is married with three children and eight grandchildren.
Nigel Ankatell
Nigel is a Chartered Accountant and has spent most of his professional life as a director with PwC & EY working with families in Northern Ireland (and Scotland) helping them primarily with tax and succession issues. He currently has his own private practice. He is on the board of a large UK transport company and also is a trustee of a pension fund.
He spent the early part of his life in Co Donegal and subsequently in Bangor in Northern Ireland.
His heroes of the faith are those godly ministers of the church who care for their people and faithfully teach the whole counsel of God from the whole Bible.
He has worked in Christian leadership roles for many years and has a special interest in coming alongside and working with those who are considering a call from the Lord to be ministers in His Church.
David Benson
Dr. Dave Benson is a leading thinker and researcher on the role of faith in 21st-century Western culture. A former high school teacher and lecturer at Malyon Theological College in Brisbane, Australia, he currently leads the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity's Culture & Discipleship work. This role involves consulting with theological education institutions to develop whole-life disciplemakers (LICC's Theological Education).
Dave’s mission is to cultivate disciples equipped with wisdom for following Christ's way in a post-Christendom culture. His 2016 Ph.D. project, titled 'Schools, Scripture, and Secularisation,' explores the ultimate aims of competing curricular visions and the role of sacred texts in secular education. Additionally, he is the lead editor of Transforming Vocation: Connecting Theology, Church, and the Workplace for a Flourishing World (Wipf & Stock, 2021).
Dr Desta Heliso
Desta was born to a Christian family in rural Ethiopia. He is married to Joanna Jeffery and they have six children, three of whom are biological (Sophia, Ezra and Charis), and three adopted (Melkamu, Mekdes and Keab). Desta received a diploma in theology in Ethiopia and then taught at a theological school, where he also served as Director and co-ordinator of ministries for over 300 congregations in his home area. He came to Britain and completed his PhD after which he returned to Ethiopia and joined the faculty of the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology (EGST) as lecturer. After serving as Acting Dean of Studies, he was appointed Director in 2008, a position he held until the end of 2015. Desta has now left EGST after 16 years of service. He and his family have moved back to the UK for family reasons. Desta continues to lecture part-time at theological institutions and work on academic research projects as well as running a new not for profit organisation called SOPHOS AFRICA.
This variety of experience across different countries, cultures, sectors and business sizes also helps him to bring fresh perspectives that he can share with the organisations that he works with. He is currently CEO of Beacon, a challenger SaaS platform looking to change the landscape of online advertising by driving transparency, increasing data accuracy and reducing fraud. Nigel also holds a number of business interests including non-executive directorships, board advisory positions and charity trusteeships.
Judith Sawers
Judith and her husband, Will, work with Wycliffe Bible Translators supporting national translation teams in central Africa, and as part of Wycliffe’s member care team in the UK. Judith’s degree in Biblical Studies and Linguistics and a call whilst in her teens to serve God cross-culturally led them in this direction. Her work now focuses on publicity and prayer-raising for the Central African Republic through networking and social media, and supporting colleagues in raising personal financial support in the UK. Her experience of the gaps in training and resourcing of the church in central Africa has made her very much aware of the potential for Langham’s ministry there, as in so many other challenging situations around the world. The combination of both a new generation of Bible teachers and mother-tongue Scriptures seems one of the most powerful tools for the development of mature churches worldwide! Having recently moved to west Devon, she is enjoying building relationships in the community there and seeking God’s place in the local Christian family.
Mary Evans
Mary taught mathematics for two years at a Manchester comprehensive school before studying for four further years at LBC. She then continued on the staff at LBC/LST for the next 30 years becoming vice-principal for the last few years. During that time she had experience as a visiting lecturer for varying lengths of time in Pakistan, India, Brazil, Rumania, Croatia and Zambia as well as in Canada and Australia. She has also had the opportunity to visit mission work, often involving theological colleges, in Ecuador, Ghana, Nigeria and Niger. Her involvement on the councils of Bible Society, Global Connections, EA, Latin Link and SIM (not all at the same time!) has also been fairly extensive. She taught Old Testament Studies for three years at the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology in Addis Ababa. Mary has authored several books including the BST commentary on 1 and 2 Samuel and the Tyndale Commentary on Judges.
Nigel Bridges
Nigel has over 30 years leadership experience in the consulting and technology sector. His career has included significant UK and international experience in managerial and executive roles including Divisional Director, Managing Director, COO and CEO for larger corporates and smaller SME’s. After graduating from City University (now Cass) Business School Nigel started his career in management consulting and business development in the UK and Hong Kong; before moving into general line management. His corporate career saw him managing ever larger business unit across the UK and Europe including a number of turn-arounds.
International Leadership
Jill McGilvray (Chair)
Langham Partnership International Council Chair
Jill is a visiting lecturer at Sydney Missionary and Bible College and at Mary Andrews College. Her book God’s Love in Action, Pastoral Care for Everyone was published in 2009 and has meant that she has spoken and taught about pastoral care and understanding grief, at churches and conferences in several states of Australia.
Chris Wright
Global Ambassador
Chris Wright represents and promotes the vision and work of Langham around the world through his international travel, his speaking and writing ministry as a Christian scholar and author, and in sharing the spiritual and strategic leadership of the organisation.
Riad Kassis
International Director
Riad Kassis is a Langham Scholar from Lebanon and is deeply committed to global theological education. He has served as Regional Director for Overseas Council, as well as visiting professor of Old Testament at The Arab Baptist Theological Seminary.
Dr Lina Toth
Director of Langham Scholars
Lithuanian by nationality, Lina Toth joins Langham following her ministry at the Scottish Baptist College, where she served as Assistant Principal and Lecturer in Practical Theology. She earned her PhD at the International Baptist Theological Seminary (Prague; now IBTS Amsterdam), and for a number of years has held a several positions there, most currently as a Senior Research Fellow. A musician as well as a theologian, she is particularly interested in ethics, spirituality, and theologies of culture. Her second love is history—not so much dates, but people and stories which have shaped the world we have today. She is an author of several books, the most recent of which is Singleness and Marriage after Christendom: Being and Doing Family.
Paul Windsor
Director of Langham Preaching
Paul Windsor convenes Langham Preaching's Global Leadership Team (GLT) which facilitates the development of grassroots movements of biblical preaching across the world. After some years living in Bangalore, India, Windsor has returned to live in his homeland of New Zealand.
Dr Hani Hanna
Director of Langham Literature
Hani Hanna is a Langham Scholar from Egypt who possesses a deep understanding of the importance of theological literature in equipping leaders for the global church. He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in Egypt and came to Langham after serving in many roles at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC), most recently as president. He and his wife, Lucy, have two children and live in Cairo, Egypt.