trustees
Gordon Showell-Rogers
Chair of the Board of Trustees
Gordon is a husband, father, and grandfather of five very energetic young grandsons. His whole life he has helped people to catch a vision for what can be achieved together and then realise that vision. He has worked as a teacher, a pastor and a student worker and spent 17 years with Evangelical Alliances. Since 2016, he has focused on families, children, and youth - and the vulnerable: the persecuted, the displaced and the trafficked. Current commitments include WWO, Converge, the Refugee Highway Partnership, the Global Children’s Forum, with time also given to the Religious Liberty Partnership. He also hopes that the first-ever global digital daily newspaper, ‘Christian Daily International’ will bring unheard voices to a global audience, informing and inspiring active engagement with a needy world. He has avoided Boards for years, but agreed to join WWO Europe’s Board, because he believes so passionately in the WWO vision.
Liviu Mihaileanu
Liviu is an adoptive father and President of both Tzuby’s Kids (NGO from Bucharest, Romania authorised to provide services in the field of adoption) and Romania Without Orphans Alliance. For the last decade, he has been in the front line of changing legislation on child protection and adoption in Romania. Liviu has a professional background of over 20 years in business management within private ownerships and multinational consulting firms. Since 2017 he has taken the responsibility to lead the Advisory Knowledge Management services for PwC across EMEA. Liviu is currently a PhD student in Theology at the University and Bucharest researching on the theology and practice of adoption among Christian communities. He also holds a master’s degree in theology, a management degree in Business Administration and a BA in Communication and Public Relations, among other professional degrees in Knowledge Management, Project Management and Management Accounting.
Barbara Ruegger
Involved with World without Orphans from the beginning, Barbara has worked with children since 1990. She has worked with street children in India, in a group home for teenagers in conflict with the law in Switzerland and has been one of the leaders of the children's ministry in a large Swiss church for several years. During 2002-2022 Barbara was part of the international leadership team of King's Kids/YWAM and has a rich experience in working cross culturally. For many years Barbara was part of her sister and brother-in-laws foster family as an aunty, helping to care for their children. She is a trainer and coach in Trauma and Attachment and has written her own training manual on that topic. She has an MA and a PhD in Holistic Child Development and travels widely to train people who work with children, especially with orphans and children in foster care. Barbara experienced orphanhood herself as a child and has a big heart for all vulnerable children, both in her own country of Switzerland and internationally.
Oleg Shelashskiy
Oleg is the Executive Director of International Leadership and Development Center (ILDC), Kiev, Ukraine. ILDC's emphasis is to provide training and orientation for actual & prospective adoptive and foster care parents and orphan caregivers through conferences, literature and other activities.
Having started out in business, Oleg moved into youth ministry before being offered a job with an organization that was engaged in orphan ministry. While working for this ministry, Oleg and his wife adopted one of the children that was in their care and it impacted his life tremendously.
He is now fully engaged with the campaign for a world without orphans and is a former President of Ukraine Without Orphans.
Phil Green
Phil is motivated by his hate of injustice, an unquenchable hopefulness, and the belief that ordinary people can, and the Church should, make a difference in the world. He is the international CEO of Viva - Together for Children. Viva is an international charity dedicated to changing more children's lives to fulfil their God-given potential. He used to be the director of global partnerships for World Without Orphans Global, also leading the WWO global leadership’s response to COVID-19. He is the chair of ‘a little bit of HOPE’ a small international development charity in rural Uganda, which he co-founded; and a board member of Spurgeon’s Children Charity. Previously, he was the CEO of Home for Good, a UK organization that exists to find a home for every child who needs one by inspiring Christians to step up to foster and adopt, and equipping churches to support those that do. Phil lives just north of London with his wife Hannah and their two small children – Isaac and Tilly.
Darko Mikulic
Darko's passion is to see the Kingdom of God come, capture and change hearts, restore and redeem broken and lost people, families, and children. He is married to Gorana. God has blessed them with four of their own kids, and currently four foster kids. Becoming a foster parent has opened his heart and widened his ministry and church to the fatherless children. After finishing theological seminary, for the last 24 years, he has been involved in evangelism and church planting. He is a pastor of a Baptist church in Slavonski Brod, Croatia. He is a member of several other boards (Baptist Union executive board, Croatian Evangelical Alliance, and WWO Croatia). Currently, he is developing the construction and vision of the House of Hope ministry centre that will serve foster, orphan and single-parent children and families.
Ruth Vergnon
Ruth, trained as a primary school teacher in France, has a deep passion for children and teaching. She was invited to Albania to specialize in working with children at risk. In 2016, Ruth completed her master's degree in Child Protection and further obtained an advanced certificate in Complex Developmental Trauma in 2022. Alongside her husband, she founded and now leads a local NGO in Albania, Alo! Mik, which serves children from challenging backgrounds. Ruth particularly enjoys facilitating training for those working with at-risk children.