The Navigators, a worldwide partnership focused on evangelizing and discipling the nations, has appointed a new international president, Englishman Michael W. Treneer, former Africa director. The selection came after a four-month process that concluded with a vote of the international council. The council, chaired by Dr. Jerry White, the current international president of 18 years, voted unanimously for Treneer’s appointment.
“I am extremely pleased with God’s selection of Mike,” says White, who will retain his position as chairman of The Navigators U.S. Board of Directors. “God has uniquely prepared him for this role, and he is the man to lead the next phase of the Navigator ministry.”
Treneer, 56, will assume his new position on January 1, 2005. He will be the fourth international president in The Navigators’ 72-year history. Born and raised in England, and with more than 20 years’ service in Africa, Treneer is The Navigators’ first non-American president.
Treneer came to faith in Christ through the Navigator student ministry in England. After graduating from Loughborough University as a chemical engineer, he worked for Shell Chemicals in Manchester while continuing his involvement with the Navigator student ministry. He and his wife, Chris, joined staff full time in 1971. In the mid ’70s, the Treneers pioneered the Navigator ministry in Nigeria. He served as The Navigators’ director for Africa from 1981 to 1998. In 1998, Treneer became an international vice president of The Navigators, overseeing ministries in Australia and New Zealand, Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States. For the past three years, he has led the European Navigator work.
More than 4,000 Navigator staff of 63 nationalities minister among college students, military personnel, business and professional people, communities, and churches in 110 countries. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, The Navigators is a worldwide partnership with a calling to advance the Gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom into the nations through spiritual generations of laborers living and discipling among the lost.