WHO WE ARE

Bishop Kym Lucas confirms young adults at her pastoral visit at the multicultural congregation of Intercession in Thornton, Colorado. Photo courtesy the Rev. Quirino Cornejo

WHO WE ARE

Our board members and staff represent decades of work in the Church with broad visionary financial and organizational expertise. We know how to transform the question from “How do we survive?” to “What if?” and “Why not?”

The more challenging the situation, the more interested we are.

ECBF is not another consulting group nor are we a grant making organization. We don’t design capital campaigns. Instead, ECBF is a dynamic collaborator, a catalytic agent gifted at converting missional dreams into realities grounded in solid sustainable financial footing. We work with church leaders to collectively take a proactive approach to declining membership, declining revenue, and buildings in need of redevelopment. We help leaders create courageous visions that are not simply catchphrases, but investment positions.

LEARN ABOUT OUR LOANS

Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe
Chairman of the Board

READ BIO

The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe was ordained bishop of the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania in 2007 and became bishop provisional of Western New York in 2019. He previously served as bishop provisional of the Diocese of Bethlehem from 2014 until 2018.

Born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, the bishop graduated from Grove City College in 1997 with a B. A. in history. “I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, and came to know and to love that culture,” he said in a recent interview. “I come from a family of primarily steel and mill workers. That part of the world is resilient, but it was in the process of becoming what we now call the Rust Belt.”

The bishop graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in 2000 and returned to the diocese. “I came back to serve a church, a congregation in a small town in western Pennsylvania, and had a tremendous relationship with the community – the church more than doubled in size in a declining demographic,” he said. “I was doing ministry in a place I know and love.”

Rowe was 32 in May 2007, when he was elected bishop on the first ballot. For almost 12 years, he was the youngest bishop in the church.

“When I became diocesan bishop, I saw that Western New York shares a culture with the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania,” he says, and was heartened to learn that the Rt. Rev. R. William Franklin, former bishop of Western New York was open to exploring the current partnership.

The bishop is known for his research and work on organizational learning and adaptive performance in the church. He earned a Ph.D. in organizational learning and leadership at Gannon University in Erie in 2014.

He serves as parliamentarian for the House of Bishops, chair of the Episcopal Church Building Fund, and as a member of the Standing Commission on Structure, Governance, and Constitution and Canons. He also serves on the Greater Buffalo Racial Equity Roundtable. From 2018 to 2022, he was the first bishop to serve as a member of the House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church.

He is married to Carly Rowe, a Christian educator, and they have a ten-year-old daughter, Lauren.

William ‘Bill’ Wiley
President

READ BIO

William C. Wiley (Bill) has over forty years of commercial banking, investment banking and public sector financial experience. He founded and served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of a national bank and created three separately chartered banks and a multi-bank bank holding company. He led the organization through an institutional offering of securities and a public listing of the company’s stock. As CEO he oversaw the purchase and management of a mortgage company and developed the first ever multi-bank Trust operation.

Prior to his experience as a bank holding company CEO, Bill was Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Virginia, where he had responsibility and oversight for all banking, investment and financial management of a multi-billion-dollar organization and an eighteen-billion-dollar ($18 billion) investment portfolio. He initiated the first ever Audited Annual Report of the State Treasurer.

In the mid-2000s Bill formed Ascential Equity, which focused on working with private equity investors, community banks and non-bank financial companies. In 2017 Bill, along with other operating and private equity partners, formed Dedicated Funding, a Utah based commercial equipment financing company, on whose board he currently serves. In his early career, Bill worked in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Bill has a great deal of innovation and creation in the financial services industry, which he now brings to ECBF.

In the non-profit world, Bill was a member of the organizing board of directors for the International Hospital for Children – now, the World Pediatric Project – and Richmond Hill, an ecumenical Christian residential community located in Richmond, Virginia.

Bill earned his bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government from Old Dominion University, and served on its governing Board of Visitors. He has a graduate degree in English Writing from Hollins University where he has served as a Trustee and chairman of the Audit Committee. He is, also, a veteran of the United States Air Force.

Mary Lou H. Ivey
Senior Vice President – Finance

READ BIO

Mary Lou joined the Episcopal Church Building Fund as Senior Vice President of Finance in January 2022 after 27 years in Public Accounting specializing in tax services for Corporate, Partnership, and high net worth Individual clients. Mary Lou previously served ECBF as a Trustee for the Board from 2010 to 2018, and as Treasurer from 2010 to 2017.

Mary Lou is the Chair of Independent Trustees for two mutual fund series trusts: World Funds Trust, since 2010; and ETF Opportunities Trust, since 2019. A dedicated community volunteer, Mary Lou is on the Board of Directors for the Long Point Corporation in Vermont and serves as President since 2020. She is a past treasurer for the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation. A “cradle” Episcopalian, Mary Lou is a member of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Goochland, VA.

Mary Lou is most proud of her two children, their spouses, and three delightful grandsons to whom she is known as Yo Yo.

Ann Fleming, M.Ed.
Vice President for Development & Operations

READ BIO

Ann was delighted to begin working for the Episcopal Church Building Fund in the fall of 2020. As Vice President for Development & Operations, she works across programs and projects to help facilitate creative and grounded ways for parishes, dioceses, and institutions to think about how they use their buildings and properties in new and mission-aligned ways.

Ann brings education and training in Organization/Congregational Development and full-time Episcopal Church ministry, which allows her to understand how to effect change within the context of the church.

Ann lives in a “thin place” in the mountains of Colorado, just west of the Denver metro area. She is most proud of her adult children, Connor and Peyton, and all the ways they are living into their best and most authentic selves.