Our Board
The Straight Path Ministries (SPM) Board of Directors (BOD) consists of five (5) members to prevent deadlock and employs the directorship model. This means that the Chair/President has the ultimate say in the decisions that govern SPM operations. The reason for choosing this model is that since the majority of SPM ministry work is performed in Guatemala and few people spend enough time in Guatemala to understand the culture behind how SPM operates. Also, while SPM is serving in Guatemala, it can prove counterproductive to wait for the BOD to vote on necessary and often critical decisions. This does not mean that the BOD does not serve a purpose, but it does prevent the delay of critical decisions and decisions that may divert SPM from operating within its core values and beliefs in order to carry out its mission.
Derek Elles
Founder/President/Chair
derek@straightpathministries.org
Derek grew up in an Italian-Mexican, Catholic family, attended Catholic school, and served as an altar boy in church regularly. As a Junior in High School, he felt the need to leave the church and found himself searching for religious truth. He was first saved while on patrol onboard a nuclear submarine in the U.S. Navy during a nuclear war scenario. Not completely understanding what it meant, and not having anyone to guide him, he found himself exposed to many religions and began to research several of them and even attended some of their churches.