Who We Are

Mike Taylor, Executive Director/Board Member 2011

Mike’s passion is helping students see the call of God on their life for the Gospel. Mike has been an innovator in Student Ministry for over 30 years. Throughout his ministry, he has used his spiritual gifts to preach and teach students through his personal mission statement: “We exist to Reach unbelieving and uncommitted students to Grow and deepen them in their faith and to Send them out to impact their world for Jesus Christ.” Mike’s ability to lead has given him the reputation as one of the top youth pastors in the country. He has served as President of the Metro Youth Pastors Association on two occasions and has been a featured speaker with the Song of Solomon conferences, youth camps, and various student events. Mike and his wife, Kookie currently live in the United Kingdom in Stockton-on-Tees. They have four children: Thad, Shelby, Hannah, and Hayden.

Mike currently serves as the Centre Director for Tees Valley Youth For Christ and as the Pastor of The Vine Church Teesside. Mike and Kookie have lived in the Northeast of England since September 2011.

You can follow Mike on Twitter: @mikestaylor @ukusaministries

You can follow Mike on Instagram: @ukusaministries

Jim Hilbert, Board Member 2011

Jim joins the UK-USA Ministries team with over 35 years of global experience and travel in the high-tech computer industry with a focus in sales and general management, and 30 years of children and student ministry volunteering through his church Prestonwood Baptist in Plano, Texas.

Jim currently lives in CA and is involved in another high tech startup company that he hopes is his last before moving to full-time missions with his bride Cheryl now that they are empty nesters.

Jim has have been involved in several successful church plants and student ministry organizations the past 30 years with his wife Cheryl and 3 sons Chase, Garrett and Pierce, now all married with 3 grandkids to date, his new joy!

As a successful sales and business entrepreneur his passion is to assist UK-USA Ministries in fundraising and organization in the States, partnering with local churches and partners to assist Mike and team on the ground in NE of England, in order to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the ultimate goal of planting churches and leading others to Christ.

You can follow Jim on Twitter: @jimhilbert and on Instagram: @jimhilbert

John Wills, Board Member 2006

Serving The Heights Baptist Church for the last 10+ years as Executive Pastor for an amazing group of staff/people called The Heights. I serve as chief operating officer and work directly with our Sr. Pastor to carry out the vision God has given him for our church. I teach and invest in Honeymooners, develop our staff to their full potential, and work with/love neighbors and international students at the University of Texas Dallas. I work closely with a non-profit called Jordan Seven to help alleviate the Water Crisis in 3rd world countries in Africa. I fell in love with England in 2000 and saw the potential for the Gospel and students there that makes my heart beat faster to this day. John was one of the founding members of UK-USA Ministries in 2006.

I have been married to my favorite wife, Kelly, for 36 years. We have two great kids and 3 amazing grandkids. I was a Student Minister for over 20 years at 3 great churches. Psalm 19 echoes in my soul and keeps me fervent for a world God loves and sent his son to die for. I believe God has a crush on us that he never gets over. I am still here to give people great pictures of a God who loves them.

You can follow John on Twitter: @johnswills and on Instagram: @jnkwills

John Rhodes, Board Member 2006

John was also a founder of UK-USA Ministries having hosted the first mission trip back in March 2000. He was formerly Vice Principal at The King’s Academy, Middlesbrough having been appointed to that position since its inception in 2003. He now serves on the Governing Body of the Academy. John has a passion for football and has coached teams both in England and Jamaica and was coach to The King’s Academy 6th Form football team taking them on 5 tours to Houston and Dallas.

John was the first chairman of Tees Valley Youth for Christ and served in that position for 7 years seeing it grow to the 3rd largest YFC in England. Now enjoying retirement from working life he lives with his wife Claudine in a little village just outside of York in the great county of Yorkshire.

You can follow John on Instagram: @johnrhodesmbc

Shawn Smith, Board Member 2015

Shawn Smith serves as the pastor of SouthCrest Church in Newnan, Ga.  He has been in full time ministry for 26 years and served as a student pastor for 20 years.  He is married to Tracey and has one son Kyle who is a sophomore in college.  He grew up in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and attended college at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.  He became a Christian at the age of 17 while he was in High School.  Shawn has served on church staff in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, and Georgia.   His life verse is Philippians 3:10:  “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,”

You can follow Shawn on twitter: @shawnsmith247 and on Instagram: @shawnsmith247

Greg Ladd, Board Member 2011

Greg Ladd is an accomplished enterprise software sales executive with more than 20 years of achievements in strategic sales leadership. Key areas of focus across a variety of industries include Master Data Management (MDM), Software as a Service (SaaS), Business Process Management (BPM), Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Data-Driven Cloud Applications.

Greg’s extensive knowledge of enterprise Energy business operations in domestic and international markets is well-matched with his awareness of new technology trends in the industry. In his current role, Greg is leading Reltio’s Energy Business Unit driving differentiated business value and go-to-market solutions through Reltio’s cloud based solution offering data-driven applications and modern data management, guiding customers to take the right actions, based on the right insights, to achieve the right results.

Among previous positions, Greg has served as a Director Energy MDM Sales at Informatica, Global Account Executive at Kinaxis, Inc., a supply chain management & operations planning solutions firm and was a Strategic Sales Executive at Sonic Software, a global SOA/ESB solutions company.

Greg began his career with Mid-America Pipeline, El Paso Natural Gas, KPMG Consulting and Electronic Data Systems and holds degrees in Marketing and Management Information Systems from The University of Tulsa.

Greg serves on the board of UK-USA Ministries and also provides mentoring to emerging business leaders.

Personal Interests and Community Activities include: Lighthouse Ministries – serving the Spanish-speaking communities in Dallas, TX, Language studies in Spanish and Italian, Fly Fishing and Travel.

You can follow Greg on Instagram: @thegreg_ladd

Victor Moran, Board Member 2015

Victor Moran serves as Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer of Moran Enterprises, Inc., a diversified holding company with target investments in real estate, energy and the private security industries. He has over 35 years of U.S. and international experience in the private and public sectors.

Born and raised as a child in the State of Oregon in the U.S Pacific Northwest, Victor’s parents committed their lives to missions and ministry serving in the State of Texas on the border of the United States and the Republic of Mexico. Victor committed his life to Christ at a young age and has been blessed to serve in leadership roles of numerous nonprofit and for profit organizations since his college years.

Victor has served as Chairman and CEO of Vil-Mor International, Inc., CRV Resources Holdings, Inc., Moran Gas Management Corp., Siempre Energy LLC and as a member of the Board of Swift Energy International Inc., East Texas Baptist University, the Spring Independent School District and the UBA Center for Counseling. He has served on the advisory boards of Texas A&M University Mays Business School – Master of Science in Marketing and the Executive MBA program, as well as, the Advisory Board of the South Texas College of Law Corporate Compliance Center and the Advisory Board of Arts and Humanities at the University of Houston – Downtown.

Victor Moran earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government and history from the University of Texas-Pan American, a Juris Doctor degree from South Texas College of Law, a Master of Business Administration degree from Texas A&M University and did graduate work at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Christian Education. He holds the Certificate of Director Education from the National Association of Corporate Directors Institute. 

You can follow Victor on Twitter: @victorrmoran2

Cory Butler, York Hub Leader 2016

Cory and Meredith Butler have been married for almost 10 years now.  Cory has served local churches in Texas, Colorado and Alabama, as a youth minister for 20 years before moving to York, England.  Meredith was a middle school science teacher until becoming a stay at home mom. Their son Liam, is 6 years old.  Like most boys he loves playing football (soccer), building Legos and wrestling with his dad.  Noralee is the beautiful, and independent, baby of the family.  She will be 2 years old in February of 2017.

Thaddaeus Taylor, Sports Ministry 2011

Thaddaeus graduated from Liberty University in May of 2011 with a degree in Biblical Studies. In May of 2012 he received his Masters degree in Intercultural Studies from Liberty University. He played NCAA Division 1 soccer for the Liberty Men’s soccer team from 2007 through 2011 and participated in the NCAA Championships in 2007. Thad simply loves footy and the opportunity the game brings to connect with kids. Thaddaeus has worked for Kanakuk Kamps and has been involved in multiple sports mission trips in Guatemala, South Africa, Cyprus, England and Brazil. These opportunities have sparked the desire to unite sports with a passion to share Jesus Christ with kids and young people all over the world. Thad currently lives and serves on mission in Curitiba, Brazil.

You can follow Thad on Twitter: @ThaddaeusTaylor and on Instagram: @ThaddaeusTaylor