The Queen has approved that Ms Loretta Caroline Rose Minghella,
OBE be appointed First Church Estates Commissioner in succession
to Sir Andreas Whittam Smith, CBE.
Background
Loretta has been Chief Executive of Christian Aid since 2010,
with overall responsibility for its strategy, plans and
programmes across the world. She has since overseen responses to
emergencies such as earthquakes and typhoons, the refugee crises
in the Middle East and Europe, and hunger and famine in East
Africa. She has also led Christian Aid’s long term development
work and advocacy on major issues affecting the world’s poorest
people, including climate change.
Loretta is a lawyer by training who, after practising as a
criminal litigator, began a career in financial regulation in
1990. The first Head of Enforcement Law, Policy and International
Cooperation for the Financial Services Authority, she also
chaired the International Organisation of Securities Commissions’
Standing Committee on Enforcement and Information-Sharing.
In 2004, Loretta became Chief Executive of the Financial Services
Compensation Scheme, in which capacity she oversaw the payment of
over £21 billion in compensation to victims of bank and other
financial failures. In recognition of her contribution in that
role, she was awarded the OBE in the New Year’s Honours 2010.
A trustee of the Disasters Emergency Committee and of St Georges
House Trust (Windsor Castle), Loretta is a member of the Church
of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group and a Sarum Canon
at Salisbury Cathedral. Loretta has a BA (Hons) in Law from the
University of Cambridge.
She lives with her husband and two children in London and attends
St Barnabas Church, Dulwich, where she is, in her own words, an
‘enthusiastic if not talented’ member of the choir.
