Members of the National Church Governance Project Board
David served as Member of Parliament for Aylesbury from 1992 to December 2019. He was Minister for Europe throughout the Coalition and Cameron majority governments.
Under Theresa May he served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council, Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, and Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In that last role, David was responsible for chairing most Cabinet Committees and many COBR meetings.
He was responsible for constitutional affairs and worked closely, and across party lines, with political leaders in Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland. David was a member of the National Security Council and acted as deputy to Prime Minister Theresa May, including on several occasions at Prime Minister’s Question Time.
He has represented the United Kingdom at the European Union, NATO, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the United Nations Security Council. Since stepping down from the House of Commons, David has taken on a number of think tank and charity appointments, including chairing the Royal United Services Institution (RUSI) and the Buckinghamshire Historic Churches Trust. He is a member of the Advisory Panel to the Lord Chief Justice.
David is married to Helen, and they have four grown-up sons. He lives in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, and attends St Mary’s Parish Church. In his spare hours he enjoys history, mountain walking and choral singing.
Andrew Watson has been Bishop of Guildford since 2014, having previously ministered in Redditch, Notting Hill, Twickenham and Birmingham (where he was Bishop of Aston from 2008-14). He holds degrees in Law and Theology from Cambridge University, where he was also a music exhibitioner; and has chaired various national committees, including the Panel for World Mission and the Anglican Communion and the Ordained Vocations Working Group (charged with the daunting task of increasing the diversity of our ordinand cohort and increasing its number by 50% - a target that was very nearly reached).
Andrew was an elected member of the House of Clergy from 2000-2008 and has resumed his involvement at General Synod since becoming a diocesan bishop. He is charged with seeing the Governance Review through the Synodical process.
Alison has more than 30 years’ experience of working in and with the NHS. She started life as a geography graduate and then trained as a physio before becoming a manager and training in public health. She has a geography degree from Cambridge University, and a Masters in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; she is a member of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians.
She has worked for the past 15 years as a coach and facilitator with many different NHS organisations, and as an associate of The King’s Fund and NHS Leadership Academy. Her clients have included Boards, Senior Leadership Teams and clinical teams in a number of different NHS organisations including CCGs, acute and community Trusts, and Primary Care Networks. She currently works for Hampshire and Isle of Wight NHS ICS 2 days a week as Programme Director for OD.
In 2017, she co-founded Thrive Worldwide, which provides specialist healthcare, wellbeing and consulting services to humanitarian aid and mission organisations. Prior to starting Thrive, she was a Founder Director of Artesian, an organisational development consultancy, working for 11 years with a variety of large and medium sized organisations, including many NHS clients.
Alison also enjoys working as a charity trustee. She is a member of the Archbishops Council and of The General Synod of the Church of England, and Chair of Just Love, a student charity.
She is married with four young adult children and two baby grandchildren. She lives in Winchester and enjoys walking by the river with her dog, singing, skiing and ballet.
Alan Smith is the First Church Estates Commissioner for the Church of England. The First Church Estates Commissioner chairs the Church Commissioners' assets committee, a statutory committee responsible for the strategic management of the Church Commissioners' £10.1 billion investment portfolio, which is governed by strong ESG requirements.
Alan was formerly Senior Advisor - Climate and ESG Risk Management; and prior to that, Global Head of Risk Strategy and Chief of Staff to the Group Chief Risk Officer - HSBC. He was a member of HSBC’s climate business council whose remit was to develop the group’s sustainable finance strategy; provide oversight and governance of climate initiatives on behalf of HSBC’s group executive committee; and facilitate implementation of climate risk management across businesses, functions and regions.
He also co-chaired the HSBC climate risk oversight forum which shaped the group’s climate risk management framework and climate risk appetite statement. Alan worked with HSBC for 27 years in a variety of senior finance, risk, and capital management roles in London and in Saudi Arabia until his retirement at the end of 2021 to move fully into his Church Commissioner role.
Alan has an MBA in Finance from the Bayes Business School, City – University of London and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.
Canon Winfield was ordained deacon in 1989 and priest in 1994. She has worked in parish and cathedral ministry, university and military chaplaincy, ecumenical and Anglican Communion relations, and humanitarian diplomacy, representing the Anglican Communion at the United Nations.
Additionally, Canon Winfield has taught ecclesiology and church history and has published books and articles in the field of ecumenical theology. In 2010, she was awarded a DD by Virginia Theological Seminary for her 20 years of service to the Communion as a theologian.
Canon Winfield has been a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London since 2010, is a Director of the Anglican Alliance, is a member of Chapter at Bradford Cathedral, and a Trustee of the Community of St Andrew.
As Third Church Estates Commissioner, Canon Winfield is a member of the Church Commissioners for England’s Board of Governors and chairs the Mission, Pastoral and Church Property Committee and the Bishoprics and Cathedrals Committee. She assumed the role of Third Church Estates Commissioner on 1st February 2022.