Search begins to find new CEO

Jeremy Halcrow | 28 November 2006

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Phill Shirriff, chairman of the Sydney Diocesan Secretariat (SDS) and the Glebe Administration Board (GAB) has now launched the difficult search to find a successor to the Diocese’s chief business manager.

After 7 years, Rodney Dredge has announced he will retire as Chief Executive Officer of the two organisations on September 30, 2007.

Mr Shirriff’s search committee is aiming for at least a 3 month handover period.
“We are looking to find a successor for Rod as early as possible,” Mr Shirriff said. “So we want people to look into their hearts to see if they are called.”

“We are really looking for two skills sets,” explains Mr Shirriff. “Firstly, we need a business generalist who has the leadership ability to manage our highly skilled group managers who drive each of our businesses.

“But SDS has a strong focus on parishes, so we are looking for a committed Anglican who understands the Church’s Mission.”

Finding a replacement for Rodney Dredge is certainly a tough task. He spent many years running his own business advising corporations on how they could improve performance.

But he also has a heart for ministry. Since 1983, when he became a Sunday School teacher at St Paul’s Castle Hill, he had an oversight role within the Diocese’s largest youth ministry.

He also spent 15 years in the Diocese’s governing Synod prior to his appointment as CEO, with many of those as the primary spokesperson on financial matters.

“When I was asked to consider the CEO’s role, it was like a light going on. It felt like God had been preparing me for the role for the last 20 years.”

But Rodney admits that while he knew a lot about the Diocese, he didn’t understand fully what a complex role it was, until he took it on.

SDS and the GAB are separate organisations with a common board. Not only do they both exist to support the vast range of complex Diocesan ministries, but SDS is itself a combination of disparate divisions supporting parishes in services as diverse as legal, property and financial.

Mr Dredge says these must operate as if they are ‘discrete businesses’.

“It is hard for an outsider to appreciate the size and complexity of this organisation,” he says. “They might just see the 100 staff, however the organisation has a turnover of $180 million and services many tens of thousands of people.”

“It has been one of the most challenging tasks I have ever undertaken because of its diversity. As well as its juxtaposing against the front line of church ministry.”

Mr Shirriff says Mr Dredge has done ‘a very good job’ in ensuring the two organisations have successfully navigated a period of immense change.

The Glebe Board has ‘performed very well’, he said, meaning it is positioned to make a major contribution to the Diocesan Mission. Mr Dredge’s leadership has seen the net assets of the Diocesan endowment grow from $142 million to $260 million since 2000.

Likewise there has been major restructuring and cultural change at SDS so it is now focused on delivering services that genuinely impact front-line ministry.

“We are now getting some acknowledgment from parishes that we are moving in the right direction,” Mr Shirriff said.

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