Last Friday, November 9, the GCM board of directors unanimously confirmed Noel Heikkinen as the Chairman of the board for a two-year term beginning January 1, 2013. Outgoing Chairman Greg Guevara will remain on the board and nominated Heikkinen for the role. Read Greg Guevara's announcement.

Noel Jesse Heikkinen is an ordained pastor at Riverview Church in the Greater Lansing area of Michigan. His church is home to 3,000 people weekly and a thriving outreach to Michigan State University. Heikkinen himself raised ministry support with GCM from 1998 to 2002 for youth outreach in Lansing, before stepping into a pastoral position at the church.  Riverview has ongoing partnerships with GCM, Acts 29 and the Collegiate Church Network, and Noel has already served on the GCM board since December 2008.

Stepping down is Greg Guevara, J.D, currently a partner in the Labor and Employment group at Bose, McKinney, & Evans, LLP in Indianapolis, Indiana. Guevara has a long history of strong and steady leadership with GCM.  He was employed by the missions agency beginning in 1999 as Development Director and Legal Counsel, and later transitioned into the role of Managing Director overseeing GCM’s office services. In 2006, Guevara returned to the marketplace and turned over responsibility to GCM’s current Executive Director, Tom Mauriello.  Greg Guevara’s service on the GCM board began as a Managing Director in 2005 and he became Chairman beginning January 1, 2007.

Executive Director Tom Mauriello says of Guevara, “Greg’s leadership and service to GCM as both an executive, and then as Chairman, has been vital to the health and growth of GCM.  As a friend and mentor, he has been an encouragement and blessing in my life.  I am thankful for all he has done for us through the years, and glad he will remain on the board.”

Guevara writes, “it has been a joy” to serve as the Chairman, and that he believes Noel Heikkinen is a “faith-filled and dedicated leader” who “has given our entire board great confidence on his becoming Chairman.”