Who is SAP?
Sydney Anglican Property (SAP) was formed on 1 January 2024 to provide a unified, co-ordinated approach to all diocesan property matters, from day-to-day parish building issues to new church developments, strategic planning, insurance, heritage and more.
SAP brings four previously separate entities – Anglican Church Growth Corporation, the Anglican Church Property Trust, New Churches for New Communities and St Andrew’s House Corporation – under the one umbrella.
As a result, SAP is now a one-stop shop for property-related matters across the Diocese, ensuring we are able to provide parishes with better, more co-ordinated services, while retaining an emphasis on innovative projects that help people to meet the real Jesus.
In short, we aim to deliver high-quality projects on church land that meet the needs of modern congregations, deliver long-term benefits for local communities, and help to meet some of Sydney’s most pressing needs.
We’d love to see you over on our social media channels, where we post regular updates and fun stories about the work we do. Visit us on LinkedIn and YouTube and give us a follow!
Our strategy
We are currently developing our SAP Strategic Plan that will shape our priorities for the coming years. This will be available here shortly. In the meantime, you can read the former Growth Corporation Strategic Plan below for 2023-2025 to get a sense for some of our priorities. Or visit our strategy page for more information.
Our people
SAP is governed by a highly experienced Board of Directors chaired by Mr Peter Hicks, while the day-to-day operations are overseen by CEO Ross Jones and his team. You can read all about SAP’s senior leadership below. Or click on the button below for information on our Board members.
Ross Jones
Chief Executive Officer
Ross joined the Diocese as the inaugural CEO of the Growth Corporation (which now forms part of Sydney Anglican Property) in September 2019. Previously, Ross worked for 29 years in major infrastructure development – 8 years in Government followed by 21 years in engineering consulting with both Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) and global consultancy Jacobs after it acquired SKM. Ross is one of the NSW Government’s Mentally Healthy Workplace Ambassadors due to the work he has done in changing attitudes and practices towards mental illness in the engineering and construction sectors.
Ross has held a range of domestic, regional and global business leadership, operational, client and project management roles and was a Company Director of Jacobs. Ross has worked in project management and project governance roles, predominantly on major energy, road and rail transport design and environmental projects along the full life cycle of the projects from strategic business case, through concept to detailed design and then construction.
Ross joined Sydney Anglicans in the hope that the skills and background built up in his secular career might make a difference to the way the Diocese plans, designs and funds property initiatives to have a positive impact on ministry and evangelism. He is a firm believer in teamwork and is keen to enhance collaboration between relevant diocesan organisations and parishes to further the Kingdom.
Ross attends Narrabeen Anglican Church, is married to Sarah and has 4 kids. He has completed a Diploma of Biblical Theology at Moore Theological College.
Timothy Green
Senior Manager – Strategy and Development
Tim leads the Strategy and Development Team, which has carriage of all Greenfield initiatives, the Urban Renewal Pilot Program (URPP) and special strategic projects. Tim has a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Planning (UNSW) and has experience in both the private and public sectors. Prior to joining Sydney Anglican Property, Tim held roles in both statutory and strategic planning for the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.
Tim also holds a Masters of Christian Ministry (Crosslands, UK) and has worked as a Student Minister in the Sydney Anglican Diocese and in the UK.
Tim and his family love attending Bulli Anglican Church, where he can be heard preaching the from time to time. He also loves supporting the team of Growth Group leaders there and looking after the little ones in creche.
At heart, Tim just loves the local church. And people. And planning. So this role lands him right in the middle of the Tim Green venn diagram! If you’ve only seen Tim in online meetings, he is much taller (but not scarier…) in real life.
Scott Lincoln
Senior Manager – Parish Property
Scott has been with SAP (and formerly SDS) for 16 years. He is a member of St George North parish where he also serves as bible study co-leader.
Scott is a qualified town planner, having previously worked in local government assessing development applications, and as a strategic land use planner. Scott’s Parish Property Services (PPS) Team is the first point of contact for all parish property-related enquiries and matters including buildings, leasing and licensing and insurance.
Scott enjoys helping parish volunteers to address property issues that are common across many parishes. His mantra is that we can all learn from each other! Scott is also passionate about helping parishes to apply for government grants for property improvements like solar energy and battery storage.
Scott’s other love, the Parramatta Eels, currently feels unrequited…
Edward Hercus
Senior Manager – Fundraising
Ed started with NCNC (now a part of SAP) in 2023. Through his work, Ed wants to inspire established Sydney Anglicans to support the construction of new Gospel ministry and outreach centres in Sydney’s newest suburbs, so that those who come to our city can hear the life-changing news of the Lord Jesus and experience the joy of Christian community.
Prior to coming to SAP, Ed spent 22 years working across four business unit startups in industries such as Telecommunications, Software as a Service, Building Material Supply and Green Building. Ed left the commercial sector to work at Anglicare at the time of the merge between Anglicare (Community Services) and Anglican Retirement Villages. There he spent seven years as the Head of the Anglicare Foundation.
Ed holds an MBA and has a breadth of governance and advisory experience with church, ministry, social enterprise and commercial ventures.
He and his wife Lucy have 7 children between the ages of 22 and 3 and they attend Bridge Church at Kirribilli. Ed has recently accepted the disappointing reality that he will probably never be an Olympian.
Paul Searle
Senior Manager – Communications
Paul has been working for Sydney Anglicans since 2017 and joined Growth Corporation (now part of SAP) in 2023. With 20+ years of experience in media and communications, along side 10 years at the NSW Planning Department and a Bachelor of Theology from Moore College, he often feels like his whole life must have been leading to this job! Just as well he loves it…
Paul also loves using the power of great stories to communicate in a way that moves people to action, and is excited by the many opportunities to do so through SAP’s work across the Diocese.
Paul is married to Marcella and has three teenage children. He and his family attend St Matthew’s Manly where Paul is free to pursue his love for the mighty Sea Eagles without fear of persecution.
John Lau
Chief Financial Officer
John has been the Chief Financial Officer for the central diocesan organisations of the Sydney Diocese since November 2022 and CFO for Sydney Anglican Property since its inception.
He has led finance functions in the commercial and not-for-profit sectors for 25 years and has been part of multiple business transformations to deliver significantly improved financial outcomes.
As a Chartered Accountant who has worked in Sydney, London and Hong Kong, he has a depth of experience in a wide range of sectors including audit, professional services, financial services, fashion, publishing, direct marketing, indigenous employment and disability services.
John is a member of St Mark’s Darling Point which he attends with his wife and son. John’s second favourite pastime is putting lazy assets to work, but nothing can match his dedication to eating cake.
Sustainable Development Group
SAP is in strategic partnership with an organisation called Sustainable Development Group (SDG), headed by Managing Director, Richard Ollerhead (see below). In its own words, SDG exists to support and enable churches and faith-based partners to develop their land holdings such that sites are activated, the local community is drawn in, and the gospel is shared through teaching and works of service. Which sounds pretty good to us!
Our two organisations collaborate on urban renewal projects across the Diocese from initial discussions with interested parishes, through project scoping, design, approvals and construction (via third party developer relationships).
Richard OIlerhead
Managing Director – Sustainable Development Group
As SDG’s Managing Director, Richard is focused on unlocking the potential of people and property to honour God and serve both local and global communities. He brings a person-centred approach to his work, fostering long-term relationships to deliver successful outcomes.
Prior to SDG, Richard worked for Anglicare Sydney, where he implemented a portfolio approach to property development while leveraging the expertise of internal and external stakeholders. He played a lead role in Anglicare’s successful bid for funding in the second round of the State Government’s Social and Affordable Housing Fund (SAHF#2) program.
A registered architect, Richard has founded, managed and consulted to a range of real estate-related businesses and organisations over the past 25 years. He has a breadth of experience across the fields of design, property development, education and social development. Richard and his family attend St Matthew’s Manly where, for his sins, he has SAP’s Senior Manager – Communications as his bible study leader.
Partner with us
We love it when people who share our vision for putting property on mission come alongside and partner in the work we do. Whether it’s simply sharing our content on social media or supporting our projects financially, there’s any number of ways you can get involved.
Most importantly, we’d love you to pray for our work.
Choose one of the options below to take the next step with Sydney Anglican Property.