Governors

Chair of Governors 2024 – present

Joan is a member of Adelaide Place Baptist Church where she has fulfilled various roles over many years.  Joan serves on other charities as a Trustee.  She has recently retired after a career in adult nursing with specialization in diabetes nursing. She spent 30 years in academic nursing in the University of Glasgow and served her time as Head of Nursing and Health Care and had a secondment to the Scottish Government in 2011-2013 to work in diabetes education. She is married to Bill, has two grown up daughters, one son-in-law, a grandson and a granddaughter.

Born on the Wirral, Cheshire, Ian Birch has been in Baptist Pastoral Ministry for twenty five years. Before he joined SBC as a full-time member of staff in 2008 he had pastorates in Gillingham, Southsea, St Helens and Kirkintilloch.

In addition to leading the College, Ian’s specialist area is primarily in the area of biblical studies, but he also teaches in the areas of ethics, church history, Christian leadership and Baptist History and Identity. He has postgraduate degrees in theology (University of Wales/Spurgeon’s College), biblical studies (Open University/ICC), and a PhD in historical theology (University of St Andrews). Recently he has been awarded the Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (PFHEA).

He is married to Elizabeth and they have two children.

Current modules: Living Justly in God’s World; Baptist Perspectives on Being Church; Turning Points in Church History; Sermon on the Mount.

Contact Ian for queries about: College / Programme oversight; Governance and HR; Partnerships and Fundraising.

Neil is College Treasurer and, after qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, was a partner in a large city centre firm of Accountants for over 20 years before leaving in 2007. He now runs a small private accountancy practice. He is a member at Kingspark Baptist Church where he is involved as one of the Leaders, and is active in supporting various other charities as Trustee / Treasurer / Board member. Neil is married to Jean, with two grown up children.

Duduzile Rance presently holds the position of Teaching Fellow at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow, Scotland. In this capacity, she is actively involved in the leadership, design, delivery, and assessment of various undergraduate entrepreneurship and management development programme modules. She supervises undergraduate and post-graduate dissertations and engages in enterprise knowledge exchange programmes. Duduzile has achieved a PHD in Entrepreneurship from the University of Strathclyde and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA). She is married and has two adult children.

Chris has had a varied career, starting out as a newspaper reporter before turning his hand to corporate magazines, online communications and similar freelance work.  With his wife Jenny he ran a small yet wildly successful B&B on a secluded shore of Loch Lomond, while serving on the lay leadership team of Strathendrick Baptist Church in Balfron.  In 2017 he joined SBC to train for full-time, accredited Baptist ministry.  Ordained as minister of Paisley Baptist Church after his graduation in 2021, he now lives in the town with Jenny and their three more-or-less grown up children.

After an initial career in production management with Kangol Ltd, Martin served as a minister in churches in Cumbria, Aberdeen and Worcester.  He is now the Ministry Development Coordinator with the Baptist Union of Scotland. He is interested in what it means to live out the vocation of a missionary disciple of Christ and equip others for this role through teaching, training and mentoring. He completed his MA and MTh at Oxford University and is currently  working on a doctorate in practical theology, exploring the continuing development of practising ministers.