Please read below for biographies of our participants (Listed Alphabetically.)

Barry Asmus

Dr. Barry Asmus is a Senior Economist with the prestigious National Center for Policy Analysis.    Dr. Asmus has been named by USA Today as one of the five most requested speakers in the United States. He has spoke to thirty world bankers at the home of Harvard’s President, 3000 farmers in Des Moines and 7000 members of the Million Dollar Round Table at Radio City Music Hall. He has testified before the House Ways and Means Committee regards our income tax system; was a featured speaker in a privatizing Social Security conference for Western European leaders; and has addressed the faculty of the Young Presidents Organization in Cape Town, South Africa. His appearance at the Forbes Chateau de Balleroy in France with former Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus, members of British Parliament , and other Western European leaders focused on the importance of public policy decision in Europe. Recent trips to Romania and Albania have encouraged government leaders to pass free‐market, low tax and pro‐trade policies. Dr. Asmus is the author of nine books. His latest is titled Bulls Don’t Blush, Bears Don’t Die (2006) which explores the limitless opportunities emerging from a borderless and knowledge‐driven society, sharing the international economic and political trends shaping business and investment strategy in today’s global economy. As a Professor of Economics, he was twice voted University Professor of the Year and was honored with the Freedom Foundation Award at Valley Forge for Private Enterprise Education. Dr. Asmus has a client list that reads like a who’s who in corporate America.

Philip Clements

Phil Clements is the managing director of the Center for Christian Business Ethics Today, LLC. Phil has been a leader in the business community for over 30 years. In 2003, Jack Templeton, a fellow board member of the National Bible Association, challenged Phil with a question of the role of faith in commerce. Phil’s research affirmed the foundational importance of the principles of our Christian faith and the quality of business commerce. That research confirmed the changes he has experienced during his business career as the world moves away from these Christian principles. Phil founded the Center to meet this concern that is articulated in Judges 2:10-11.

From September 2001 to October 2004 Phil held the position of Executive Vice President of Standard & Poor’s Corporate Value Consulting (“CVC”) division. He led the transition of CVC to S&P, after S&P acquired CVC from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). Prior to joining Standard & Poor’s, Phil was the Global Leader of the CVC practice of PwC. During FY’99 and FY’00, Global CVC grew to a fully integrated global service unit. Prior to becoming Global Leader for CVC at the formation of PwC, Phil ran the Coopers & Lybrand’s Corporate Finance Practice for the U.S. This practice included CVC, investment banking, transaction structuring, due diligence and bankruptcy turnaround services.

From 1989 to 2000, Phil served on the U.S. boards of Coopers & Lybrand and PricewaterhouseCoopers and the global board of PwC. Phil was a member of the Finance Committees of both firms. The board experience included the board approvals of the merger of C&L and PW to form PwC and the oversight of the transition to PwC operations globally. Finance committee work included the capital structure of the firms and financial reporting. Although both firms were private, they had substantial numbers of partners for whom financial results were very relevant.

Community service plays an important role in Phil’s life. At Grace Bible Chapel, a non-denominational evangelical church, Phil has been the High School Sunday School teacher for the past 13 years, an Elder and a part of the touring praise and worship team, PowerSurge. Phil was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Bible Association. Seattle University School of Law Board of Visitors, International Leadership Board of Advisors, and HOPE Bible Mission board are others boards that Phil has served or is serving on.

David Cowan

David Cowan is an expert on Religion and International Relations, including economics. He holds a Bachelor of Theology and Master of Theology, both from the University of Oxford, and a Master of Letters from the University of St Andrews, where he is currently a PhD researcher on the influence of the “Religious Right” on American Foreign Policy from Nixon to the present day.

He is author of “Economic Parables: The Monetary Teachings of Jesus Christ” (Paternoster USA, 2007, 2nd Edition 2009). He has contributed essays on “Christianity and Economics” to the Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization (Blackwell) and on “Religious Minorities” to the International Enyclopedia of Political Science (CQ Press USA), both published this year.

He previously worked as a journalist, editor, and as an executive in banking and industry in Europe and North America for over twenty years, including Financial Times, Euromoney, and the World Bank Group in Washington DC. He has written for the Washington Times, Financial Times, The Times of London, The Middle East and has been interviewed by major print, television and radio media, including CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and BBC Radio.

William Edgar

He was born in Wilmington, North Carollina, in 1944 and grew up in Paris, France. He studied at St George’s School (secondary), Harvard University (Honors B.A. in Music), Westminster Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and the University of Geneva (D.Th.). He has taught at the Brunswick School in Greenwich, Connecticut, and at the Faculté Libre de Théologie Réformée, in Aix-en-Provence, France, where he continues as Professeur Associé. He has been at Westminster since 1989 and is currently Professor of Apologetics, Coordinator of the Apologetics Department, and Chairman of the Faculty.

Dr. Edgar belongs to a number of learned societies, including the American Musicological Society, the Evangelical Theological Society, the American Historical Association, and the Society for Ethnomusicology. He serves on several boards, including the Huguenot Fellowship (President). He is on the editorial committee of La Revue Réformée. He regularly takes part as a speaker in the Veritas Forum programs. He also serves on the Institutional Review Board and the Medical Ethics Committee of The Chestnut Hill Hospital.

Edgar is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, and has served on several denominational committees. His books include Taking Note of Music (London: SPCK, 1986), Reasons of the Heart (Baker/Hourglass, 1996; P & R, 2003), La carte protestante (Labor et Fides, 1997), The Face of Truth: Lifting the Veil (P & R, 2001), and Truth in All Its Glory: Commending the Reformed Faith (P & R, 2004). He has written numerous articles on such subjects as cultural apologetics, the music of Brahms, the French Huguenots, and African-American aesthetics. His favorite avocations are soccer and jazz piano. He plays regularly with a professional jazz band.

David Epstein

Pastorates have included the Metropolitan Bible Church in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and Forward Baptist Church in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. He was installed as Senior Pastor of the historic Calvary Baptist Church in New York City on February 8, 1998.

In addition to Pastor Epstein’s teaching ministry, leadership development, and focus on outreach and evangelism, his pastorates have included radio broadcast, and spiritual life and prophetic conferences in North America, Israel, India and Greece. He served as the President of the Ottawa Evangelical Ministerium from 1989-1991. In October, 1997, he received the Washington Bible College Alumnus of the Year award for “Outstanding Spiritual Character and Accomplishment in the Service of the Lord.” Along with tending the flock, he is host of the popular radio broadcast, Tell It From Calvary which airs six days a week in New York City.

Pastor Epstein enjoys an occasional game of golf when time permits. He and his wife Sandy are blessed with three married children and seven beautiful grandchildren.

David Gill

Dr. Gill’s vocational mission has two foci: “understanding and promoting the values and ethics of Jesus Christ in the life and work of the Christian community” and “building ethically healthy organizations in a complex, diverse, global marketplace.”

Prior to joining Gordon-Conwell, Dr. Gill taught business ethics to MBA students at St. Mary’s College and Seattle Pacific University. He served as the Carl I. Lindberg Professor of Applied Ethics at North Park University in Chicago and has also been a frequent guest professor of Christian Ethics for Regent College and Fuller Seminary. He was ordained at Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland CA. In 1977, he founded New College Berkeley, an innovative graduate school of theology and ethics for laypeople and think-tank for the exploration of connections between personal faith and values and public and professional life. He served New College Berkeley for 14 years in various roles including Project Director, Founding Chair of the Board, Professor of Ethics, Dean and President.

Dr. Gill is Principal of EthixBiz.com, an organizational ethics consulting business. He also co-founded and co-directed the Institute for Business, Technology and Ethics in Seattle, WA. He is the author of seven books and more than 200 articles, reviews and interviews.

Dr. Gill may be most widely known as a scholar for his work on the thought of the French sociologist and ethicist, Jacques Ellul. He is Founding President of the International Jacques Ellul Society and has spent significant time doing research in Bordeaux, France. He is also a member of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, the Society of Business Ethics and the Society of Christian Ethics.

He and his wife, Lucia, have two children and six grandchildren. Dr. Gill enjoys going to the gym, listening to jazz, cycling and dancing and traveling with his wife.

Wayne Grudem

Wayne Grudem is Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary in Phoenix, Arizona. Prior to Phoenix Seminary he taught for twenty years at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois, USA, where he was chairman of the department of Biblical and Systematic Theology. He received a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.Div. from Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia, and a Ph.D. (in New Testament) from the University of Cambridge, England. He has published sixteen books, including Systematic Theology, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (co-edited with John Piper), The TNIV and the Gender-Neutral Bible Controversy (co-authored with Vern Poythress), The First Epistle of Peter (Tyndale NT commentary) and Business for the Glory of God. He was also the General Editor for the ESV Study Bible (published October, 2008).

He is a past president of the Evangelical Theological Society, a co-founder and past president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and a member of the Translation Oversight Committee for the English Standard Version of the Bible.

Buck Jacobs

Prior to founding The C12 Group, LLC, America’s leading provider of Christian CEO/Owner roundtable services in 1992, Buck served as Board Director and Vice-President of Sales of the S.H. Mack Company in St. Charles, Illinois. During his ten-year association with the Mack Company, he led a ten-fold increase in sales and was instrumental in the global development of a successful Christ-centered business which was later acquired by a large public company. During this time, the Mack Company was a founding member of The Fellowship of Companies for Christ International (FCCI). Buck later served as the Florida Director for FCCI.

Buck is Chairman of the Board and Founder of The C12 Group, LLC and has written several books and feature magazine articles, including A Light Shines Bright in Babylon A Handbook for Christian Business Owners, An Action Plan for Ministry, and Seven Habits of Highly Effective Christians all available by visiting C12’s online store.

Buck’s earlier experiences include:
Managing Director of Sta-Power Italia, Spa., a Rome, Italy, based supplier of automotive aftermarket chemicals, CEO of The Executive Development Institute, with responsibility for 20 district offices, 50 sales trainers and 8,000 direct sales people and President and Director of R.G. Haskins/N.A. Strand Corp., a manufacturer of specialty machine tools.

Buck currently lives in Cornelia, Georgia, 85 miles northeast of Atlanta. He is happily married to Bonnie, has three lovely daughters, four grandsons and one very spoilable granddaughter.

Mark Joseph

Mark is President of Sentinel Wealth Management, Inc., a financial advisory firm in Reston, VA, that offers comprehensive wealth management services to high net worth families. Mark, who is a CPA and CFP, received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Accounting from the University of Virginia. He is a frequent speaker, including national events like the Financial Planning Assoc. Conference. He has been quoted or published in various publications, such as the Wall Street Journal and Money magazine.

He and his wife, Karen, and their three school-aged children are active members of Reston Bible Church. Within his church, Mark has led a shepherd group and Bible studies, and teaches frequently. He has a passion for God’s Word and a particular passion for biblical stewardship, a topic that he loves to speak on. He has served as the board chair of a local pregnancy center and of Care Net, a national organization of pregnancy centers. In his free time Mark enjoys spending time with his family, running, and doing home improvement projects.

Julius Kim

Prior to taking his current position at Westminster Seminary California (WSC), Dr. Kim ministered in a variety of ecclesiastical and academic settings. He has served in Presbyterian Church in America churches in California and Illinois. His current church calling is as Associate Pastor of New Life Presbyterian Church in Escondido, CA. While in Illinois, he taught undergraduate communications at Trinity International University and church history at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Following a brief tenure as Visiting Scholar with the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University, Dr. Kim returned to Southern California to serve as Dean of Students and to teach Practical Theology at WSC.

Dr. Kim also directs the Center for Pastoral Refreshment at WSC, a unique institute funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., dedicated to helping sustain pastoral excellence among Korean-American pastors. As a result of this work, he was able to pursue further research as a Visiting Professor at the Torch Trinity Graduate School of Theology, located in Seoul, South Korea, where he also lectured on history, preaching, and missions. He is a founding board member of a new resource center called the Council on Asian-American Reformed Leadership, a ministry dedicated to foster the biblical call, character, and competency of Reformed Asian-American pastoral leaders. He has served on several boards, including Peacemaker Ministries, Covenant College, Edmund P. Clowney Legacy Foundation, and the Cambridge Classical School.

Dr. Kim also continues to serve the broader Christian community as a preacher, speaker, and ministry consultant—recently participating in the Desiring God 2009 National Conference and the Together for the Gospel 2010 Conference. In addition to his doctoral concentration on English church history during the Restoration, his research interests include the history of preaching, homiletics, and Asian-American Christianity. His goals are to contribute both to the church and the academy through his teaching, preaching, and writing. He is the author of The Religion of Reason and the Reason for Religion: John Tillotson and the Latitudinarian Defense of Christianity, 1630–1694 and a contributor to Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry: Essays by the Faculty of Westminster Seminary California and Heralds of the King: Christ-centered Sermons in the Tradition of Edmund P. Clowney.

John Knapp

John C. Knapp, Ph.D., is founding director of Samford University’s Frances Marlin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership. Before joining Samford, Dr. Knapp was Professor and Director of the Center for Ethics and Corporate Responsibility at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business, the fifth largest business school in the United States, which grew to become a leading educational resource for leaders seeking to strengthen ethics and integrity in organizations. The programs he led during this period were attended by more than 20,000 executives and managers from hundreds of corporations, governmental agencies, non-profits and professional firms.

Internationally known as a speaker and seminar leader for professional organizations, he contributes to public understanding of ethics through frequent interviews with such media as The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Sports Illustrated, Entrepreneur, National Public Radio, Financial Week and Bloomberg News Service. In 2003 he was appointed by the Governor of Georgia to develop principles of ethical governance and lead training sessions for gubernatorial appointees, including the boards and senior officers of more than 50 state agencies.

Dr. Knapp frequently speaks to public and university audiences all around the world about the moral purposes of higher education.His books include For the Common Good: The Ethics of Leadership in the 21st Century (Praeger, 2007); Leaders on Ethics: Real-World Perspectives on Today’s Business Challenges (Praeger, 2007); and The Business of Higher Education (ABC-CLIO, 2009), three volumes examining how universities cope with pressures to strengthen accountability and efficiency. His newest book is How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and What Can Be Done about It) (Eerdmans, 2011), a practical study of the relationship of faith and work. In 2013 Palgrave Macmillan will publish his forthcoming book, Ghostwriting and the Ethics of Authenticity.

Dr. Knapp’s scholarly work was recognized in 2009 when he was named a fellow of the Caux Round Table; in 2007 with his induction into the Martin Luther King Jr. International Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College; in 2001 with the Georgia Governor’s Award in the Humanities; and in 1995 with Columbia Theological Seminary’s Florrie Wilkes Sanders Prize in Theology. He has been an adjunct Professor of Ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary, teaching courses in the doctoral program, and earlier was Senior Scholar and Professor of Ethical Leadership at Kennesaw State University.

He is a member of the editorial review board of Journal of Business Ethics and a charter member of the board of Clemson University’s Robert J. Rutland Institute for Ethics, home of the International Center for Academic Integrity. He has served on the boards of Alabama Humanities Foundation; Georgia Humanities Council; Society for Human Resources Management, Atlanta; Public Relations Society of America, Georgia; Georgia State University Foundation; and Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Earlier, he had a successful career in business, gaining extensive management experience for more than a decade as president of a corporate communication firm. During this time, Atlanta Business Chronicle twice recognized him as the region’s leading crisis management consultant; Business Atlanta (now Georgia Trend) selected him for its list of the “40 Under 40″ most successful young executives; and Outstanding Atlanta Foundation named him one of the “Ten Outstanding Young People of Atlanta”.

Dr. Knapp earned the Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Wales, United Kingdom, where he was an Honorary Visiting Lecturer; the Master of Arts, with distinction, at Columbia Theological Seminary; and the Bachelor of Science at Georgia State University where he was elected president of the student body. He and his wife Kelly have five children.

Michael Kruse

Michael’s vocational interests lie in two areas: Aiding disciples of Jesus Christ with the integration of daily work and God’s mission, and partnering with the poor in economic development. For the past seven years Michael has been the author of the Kruse Kronicle blog, a blog devoted to “Contemplating the intersection between work, the global economy, and Christian Mission.” He is a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. He is presently chair of the General Mission Council, the domestic and international mission agency for the denomination. Michael has served as a consultant to congregations. He does guest preaching, as well as teaching Sunday school and occasionally preaching for his own congregation, Pine Ridge Presbyterian Church, in Kansas City, MO.

Michael earned a B.A. in sociology from Mid-America Nazarene University, a M. A. in sociology from Kansas State University, and a M. B. A. in economic development from Eastern University. His work and volunteer experience has been diverse, spanning the nonprofit, for-profit, and faith-based sectors. He has been a research analyst for the Heart of America United Way (Kansas City), Operations Director for an information start-up company pioneered by the investment banking firm H. B. Oppenheimer & Company, done market research and competitive intelligence work as a sole proprietor, and he has taught college classes.

For the past decade Michael has devoted himself to volunteer work. In addition to denominational work, he has been active with the First Step Fund, a Kauffmann Foundation program that coaches persons from disadvantaged backgrounds through the process of developing feasibility plans for starting their own businesses. He has served on boards for several nonprofit and faith-based organizations.

Brent Lewis

Brent Lewis is responsible for energy and infrastructure investment banking at MLV & Co. Mr. Lewis has over twelve years of senior-level corporate and project finance experience in utilities, energy and infrastructure, closing on dozens of transactions with an aggregate value in excess of $10 billion. His renewable and traditional energy and power experience includes solar, wind, carbon capture, gas, waste coal and biomass fired power, upstream E & P and ethanol.

Mr. Lewis also has extensive experience in infrastructure finance, having advised on and raised capital for several large-scale toll road and airport privatizations domestically and overseas. Mr. Lewis has worked as a senior banker at Marathon Capital, and served as a Managing Director with Cantor Fitzgerald’s investment banking group in New York, where he led the firm’s global energy and infrastructure investment banking business. Mr. Lewis started his banking career with ABN AMRO, and while there worked in various project finance and investment banking roles. His last position was as Director in the bank’s Project and Structured Capital Markets group, where he was responsible for overseeing, originating and executing global structured capital markets transactions, predominantly project financings in the energy and infrastructure sectors, but also on principal transactions where ABN AMRO was an equity investor. Mr. Lewis has committed significant time working pro bono in developing countries (finance and renewable energy) including South Sudan, Cambodia, Zimbabwe and Nepal. Brent received his BA in Economics from the University of Western Ontario and his MBA at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Peter Lillback

Dr. Peter A. Lillback is President and Professor of Historical Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary located in Philadelphia and the senior pastor of Proclamation Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Lillback also serves as the President of The Providence Forum, the nonprofit organization that is committed to preserving and promoting America’s spiritual roots of religious and civil liberties.

Living between Philadelphia and Valley Forge for many years, Dr. Lillback has pursued an avid interest in the history of the Judeo-Christian heritage of the United States. He has done much research and study on the founding and Founders of our nation through examination of original source documents in numerous libraries and archives. His books, Freedom’s Holy Light…with a firm reliance on Divine Providence, and Proclaim Liberty… a Broken Bell Rings Freedom to the World, are outgrowths of his research. In 2006, Dr. Lillback’s bestseller on the Christian faith of George Washington was released. George Washington’s Sacred Fire represents the culmination of over 20 years of original research and scholarship.

Lillback is a frequent lecturer on many world-view issues, and has debated Barry Lynn, president of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and appeared on panels broadcast by C-Span. He is the voice of Proclaiming the Word, a 15-minute Bible teaching radio and television program, which airs weekdays across the country.

His primary passion in life is serving the Lord wherever he is called. As a result of being in ministry, he has enjoyed the privilege to teach and preach in numerous missions, popular and scholarly contexts. These experiences have only increased his love for travel.

He has an avid interest in all things historical – most especially theology and American history, and enjoys researching original sources. For fun, he plays a Liberty Tree Guitar. He loves to hike when possible, both locally and on vacations, and has hiked up mountainsides around the globe.

In addition to Greek and Hebrew, he reads French for fun, and continues to improve his speaking ability, aiding in his role with the Huguenot Fellowship.

Dr. Lillback considers himself a “generalist”. Those of us who work with him see him as a “servant leader” who seeks to do any job that is required, including taking out the trash, moving boxes, cleaning floors… He is known for his gifts as a teacher, preacher and mediator. He is a visionary who can see potentials and connections which are not always obvious to others and thus has been successful at starting many new ministries and initiatives.

John Mesher

Mr. Mesher is currently an Adjunct Professor at Philadelphia Biblical University in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. He teaches business law and corporate transactions in the undergraduate and graduate programs of the University’s School of Business and Leadership.

Mr. Mesher retired in 2009 as the Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Saint-Gobain Corporation, a $7 billion company with 19,000 employees at over 350 locations in the U.S. and Canada. Headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Saint-Gobain Corporation is the holding company for the North American activities of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, the world leader in the habitat and construction markets, with annual sales of $40 billion and 190,000 employees in 65 countries. At Saint-Gobain, Mr. Mesher was responsible for the legal affairs, government relations, business ethics and corporate governance of Saint-Gobain Corporation, heading a staff of 23 in-house lawyers and four paralegals in four locations. He was also the Corporate Secretary for a multi-national Board of Directors, and was the company’s chief compliance officer.

Mr. Mesher serves on the Board of Directors of Good Works, Inc., a nonprofit home repair agency for low income residents in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He is also a Quality Control Examiner for the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program. Mr. Mesher has been a panel member for various Philadelphia Bar Association programs, as well as the Argyle Executive Forum in New York City. He was the featured in-house counsel in the May 2006 edition of the National Law Journal.

Andrew Peterson

Since 1997, Dr. Peterson has directed distance education for graduate theological education from Charlotte, North Carolina for Reformed Theological Seminary, Virtual Campus. Additional professional work includes business consulting with Cathedral Consulting Group, LLC and educational technology with Digital Vistas Carolina, LLC.

Over the past dozen years, Andy has developed a “virtual campus” for the education of hundreds of graduate students at a school in the Southeast USA, Reformed Theological Seminary. With headquarters in Charlotte, the student body is worldwide. This formal degree program makes the most use of distance education of any accredited seminary in the world. Using online promotion, sales, and delivery, positive net revenue has been gained year to year. To date, RTS/Virtual has over 30 courses, including church history, systematic theology, biblical studies, pastoral counseling, Christian education, and online Greek and Hebrew language instruction.

Andy’s professional road map has been from licensed psychologist in Pennsylvania at a community mental health center, to a professor of psychology for business psychology and teacher training courses for Grove City College, a four-year liberal arts college north of Pittsburgh, to a professor of practical theology at Westminster Seminary in California and educational technologist at Santa Fe Foundation in Solana Beach, and then to University of California, San Diego to establish the first Multimedia Development Center for faculty development of digital presentations in 1995 (just as the Internet hit!). While in southern California, he consulted with businesses and schools on the use of educational technology. He continues to do that with the “virtual campus” concept now as well as doing business reviews and board services. Long-term professional themes are education, counseling and business with help from theology as well as technology. Tours in higher education have been at Western Washington University (BA, Psychology), University of California, Berkeley (MA, Educational Psychology), and University of Pittsburgh (PhD, Educational Communications and Technology).

Dennis Rees

Dennis Rees is the President of Nex Learn. NexLearn is a custom education courseware developer with extensive expertise in creating immersive learning simulations. SimWriter, its NexLearn’s proprietary immersive learning simulation development tool.

NexLearn is a custom education software developer with a special interest in creating immersive learning simulations.

NexLearn’s experienced, award-winning team introduced some of the most innovative tools and technology to the e-Learning industry over the last ten years. Their commitment to—and strength in—developing multimedia training and education solutions allows them to provide you with the next step in learning.

Philip Ryken

Dr. Philip Graham Ryken is Wheaton’s eighth president. A Wheaton native and the son of longtime Wheaton professor Dr. Leland Ryken and Mary Graham Ryken, President Ryken attended Wheaton as an undergraduate, majoring in English literature and philosophy. He met his wife, Lisa, during their first few days at the College, and they were married before their senior year. The Rykens have five children: Josh, Kirsten, Jack, Kathryn, and Karoline.

Dr. Ryken earned a master of divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary and a doctorate in historical theology from the University of Oxford. Dr. Ryken returned from England to join the pastoral staff at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia in 1995, preaching there until his appointment at Wheaton.

President Ryken has published more than 30 books, including The Message of Salvation (InterVarsity 2001); Ryken’s Bible Handbook, with Leland Ryken and Jim Wilhoit (Tyndale, 2005); Art for God’s Sake: A Call to Recover the Arts (P&R, 2006); and expository commentaries on Exodus, Jeremiah, Luke, and other books of the Bible.

Jim Seneff

James M. Seneff, Jr. is the founder and executive chairman of CNL Financial Group, Inc. He is a recipient of the 2010 Horatio Alger Award, a member of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, and serves on the Horatio Alger Association Board of Directors. He is chairman of the Governor’s Council for the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, and is a resident member of The Florida Council of 100. He is a graduate of Florida State University.

Mr. Seneff’s work in philanthropy and economic development has been recognized with many awards including the Business Leader of the Year in 2006 presented by the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Educators, the 2007 Industry Leader of the Year Award from the University of Florida Bergstrom Real Estate Center. In 2008 he was named Outstanding Philanthropist by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. He was inducted into the Florida State University School of Business Hall of Fame.

Chuck Stetson

Chuck Stetson is Chairman and CEO of Essentials in Education (EIE), a non-profit educational publisher that seeks to enrich education. In its first project, EIE has changed the nation’s mind on teaching about the Bible in under two years through the release of the first national research of high school English teachers and university English professors who virtually unanimously supported teaching about the Bible as critical for understanding English literature. Dr. Stetson co-authored the first textbook in the last thirty years on the Bible – The Bible and Its Influence – which is now being taught in over 357 schools in 43 states.

A second project has been a documentary – THE BETTER HOUR: The Legacy of William Wilberforce – which was broadcast nationally in February 2008 during Black History month on national public television. It is available on PBS Home Video through Amazon.com and Netflix.

Dr. Stetson is a Managing Director of PEI Funds, a private equity firm based in New York engaged in providing liquidity to investors in venture capital and buyout funds. He is a graduate of Yale University with a BA and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business with an MBA. He received his LLD from Concordia University- Portland.

Dr. Stetson is a frequent speaker on education in a variety of venues including to business leaders, community leaders, the staff of Congress, The White House and leading universities. He has appeared on FOX News, CBS Sunday Morning and The TODAY Show. His work at EIE has been featured in numerous Associated Press articles, The New York Times, Los Angles Times, Newsweek and in April 2007 in a cover story in TIME Magazine.

In addition to being Chairman of the Board of EIE, Dr. Stetson is a Board Member of Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, National Organization for Marriage, Marriage Savers and Chairman of Let’s Strengthen Marriage Campaign and National Marriage Week USA. He is the course developer and facilitator for WEA Leadership Institute’s “Effective Public Engagement” course to train Evangelical leaders worldwide.

Luder Whitlock

Dr. Luder G. Whitlock, Jr. is a Senior Fellow of the Trinity Forum and served as its executive director from 2003 to early 2008. He currently serves as president of Excelsis, an Orlando-based nonprofit. Earlier in his career he was for many years president of Reformed Theological Seminary.

During his earliest years of ministry in Florida and Tennessee pastorates, Dr. Whitlock traveled widely as a speaker and preacher, was engaged in camp and conference leadership, and accepted multiple responsibilities within his denomination.

Dr. Whitlock joined the faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in 1975 and, at the age of 37, was appointed president, a position he held for 23 years. At the time of his retirement, he had the longest tenure of any active seminary president in the United States. Under his leadership, RTS grew from a small regional school to one of the most innovative as well as one of the ten largest seminaries in North America with multiple campuses in the US as well as gateway extension programs in Asia, South America, and Europe.

For many years Dr. Whitlock served on the executive committee of the Fellowship of Evangelical Seminary Presidents, including eight years as chairman. For eight years he served on the executive committee of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) in the U.S. and Canada, including a two-year term as president. He was one of only five evangelicals to do so in the history of ATS. His service to higher education also took him to the boards of the National Commission on Higher Education, the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, the International Theological Seminary, the International Leadership University, the International Graduate School of Theology, Covenant College, and Westminster Theological Seminary. In addition, Dr. Whitlock serves on the advisory boards of organizations such as InTrust and the International Institute for Christian Studies.

His years of ministry have been marked by an effort to bring mutual understanding and cooperation within the worldwide evangelical community, which led him to serve on the boards of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), the World Evangelical Fellowship (North America region), Mission America, the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, and Greater Europe Mission. He has also participated in several interfaith discussions seeking mutual understanding. He was a leader in establishing the Church Planting Center, which now serves several denominations. He was also co-founder and co-president of the International Reformed Fellowship then later assumed a major role in the establishment of the World Reformed Fellowship, also serving as convener for the initial global gathering. He participated in founding the Foundation for Reformation, now Excelsis. He also helped establish the Greater Orlando Leadership Foundation, a highly successful model for training emerging leaders in a city.

His interest in research about the church and its future led him to become a member of the Barna Institute board and his pro-life commitments resulted in a board term with CareNet, the largest pregnancy resource center in the U.S. He has made his experience and insights available to many similar organizations through participation on advisory boards and assisting informally in other ways.

Dr. Whitlock is well known for his role as executive director of The New Geneva Study Bible and a major revision, published as The Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible. He is the author of The Spiritual Quest and has contributed to more than ten other volumes and over fifteen different periodicals. He served on the editorial council of Eternity magazine and the advisory board for the English Standard Version of the Bible. He also serves on the editorial advisory board of Leadership