Introduction

I am a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, following on from a DPhil in Theology from Oxford (2023), and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from York (2005). I began theological study with a prize-winning Oxford BA in theology with first-class honours (2012, graduated top of my year). I have peer-reviewed publications in biblical studies and artificial intelligence, and a book (Capital Markets for the Common Good, 2017).

My previous work in Aotearoa/New Zealand combined church leadership roles with charitable governance roles, alongside part-time graduate study culminating in the DPhil, and part-time consultancy. In my full-time role as an Archdeacon with the Indigenous Māori Anglican church, I raised millions of dollars in grant finance and built a staff team of over 20 people from scratch. I have a long-standing academic and practical interest in the ethics of artificial intelligence.

Before my vocation in the church, I worked in fixed income trading for Barclays Capital in London (2000–2011), and I have remained active in aspects of finance through part-time consulting, trading, and governance roles since then. At Barclays Capital, I was a market maker of short gilts and built up specialist experience in pricing and risk for interest-rate derivatives.

Synopsis

Qualifications

BSc (Hons), BCommerce (Auckland, 1999); PhD (AI, York, 2006); BA (Hons) (Theology, Oxon, 2012; MA taken 2017); MSt (Theology, Oxon, 2017); DPhil (Theology, Oxon, 2023).

Publications

Research outputs in theology and AI include one book (Capital Markets for the Common Good), one book chapter, and a number of peer-reviewed and popular articles.

Work

Key governance roles

Te Whare Ruruhau o Meri (family harm and sexual violence charity) — Chairperson: innovative multi-agency approach, annual revenue increased from $1.8m to $3.7m.

Auckland City Mission (homelessness and food insecurity charity) — Trustee and Audit & Risk Committee member: successful development of $120m award-winning new building (Homeground) in central Auckland for service delivery.

Qualifications

University of Oxford — DPhil (Theology) (2017–2023)

Studying part-time and by distance with regular visits to Oxford, I completed a doctorate in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. My thesis was submitted in September 2022, examined in December 2022, and passed with minor corrections. I graduated in May 2023. I am now working on preparing the thesis for publication as an academic monograph.

The thesis is a hermeneutical and ethical project motivated by Indigenous land rights and issues around the ethics of capital, examining Jeremiah 32 and related texts, and working in multiple ancient languages (primarily Hebrew, and also Aramaic, Syriac, Akkadian, Greek, Ugaritic, among others). My supervisor, Hindy Najman, is the Oriel & Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oriel College. My examination was by Prof. Konrad Schmid and Dr. Philip Lassater.

Two novel contributions in the thesis are reading Jer 32 as a microcosm of the development of book of Jeremiah, and reading the material details of the chapter’s economic descriptions as contributing to the rhetorical effect of the chapter.

Hebrew University (Jerusalem) 2017

Modern Hebrew intensive Ulpan in Jerusalem, along with research at the library of the École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem.

University of Oxford — MSt (Theology), 2016–2017

I worked on research which fed into my doctorate, focusing on three areas: economic laws in the Pentateuch, a philological point in Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the temple, and the relationship between the crisis in Nehemiah 5 and the Pentateuchal laws. I continued to develop my biblical Hebrew and Greek, and studied three additional ancient languages (Akkadian, Aramaic, & Syriac) and two additional modern languages (German and modern Hebrew).

I also took a number of Anglican studies classes at Ripon College Cuddesdon. My college was Christ Church, where I also served my title post in the cathedral.

AUT — Te Kakano, 2014–2015

Level 5 te reo Māori studies.

University of Oxford — BA/MA (Hons, Theology), 2010–2012

I was awarded first class honours (with first class honours in every subject), the Denyer & Johnson Prize for the best theology BA in 2012, and the Ellerton Theological Essay Prize for my dissertation. I served as Undergraduate Joint Consultative Committee member and Faculty Board student representative.

I was a student at Wycliffe Hall, one of the Anglican halls at Oxford, and undertook ministry formation there.

My dissertation was subsequently published in an A-ranked biblical studies journal: “Did Jesus Oppose the prosbul in the Forgiveness Petition of the Lord’s Prayer?” Novum Testamentum 56 (2014), 233–244.

MA taken in 2017.

Securities & Investment Institute (London) — Financial Regulation 1, 2004

This was a professional qualification, and was a regulatory requirement for being given a trading mandate by Barclays Capital as part of my work in financial markets.

University of York — PhD (Computer Science), 2000–2005; awarded 2006

My thesis title was, “Combining Inference and Backtracking Search for the Propositional Satisfiability Problem,” and my research output included seven refereed publications, and invited presentations at Instituto Superior Técnico (Lisbon), the University of Auckland, and the University of Wales (Swansea). I served as the research student representative on the departmental Board of Studies.

Full-time study: 2001–2003; Thesis submission: Nov 2005; Award: Jul 2006.

I have continued to follow the academic AI world, including giving a recent invited talk on the ethics of AI at the University of York’s Computer Science Department.

University of Auckland — BSc (Hons, Computer Science), BCommerce, 1999

My Bachelor of Science was awarded with first class honours and a Senior Prize (1998), and the Bachelor of Commerce was studied conjointly.

Carey College, Auckland — School, until 1994

Two school Premier Awards for “Leadership, Academic Excellence and Representing the School” (1992, 1993). Top mark in New Zealand for the CSSEE Computer Science exam (1993), Distinction in the Australian Schools English Exam (1994), and two National Science Fair Merit Awards (1992, 1994).

Publications

Books

• Capital Markets for the Common Good: A Christian Perspective. Oxford: The Oxford Centre for Enterprise, Markets, and Ethics (2017)

Book chapters

• ‘Episcopal fragmentation in Te Pouhere.’ in Te Awa Rerenga Maha: Braided River. Auckland: Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia (2018)

• ‘Te Rāwiri — karakia Karaitiana and Māori Christian formation,’ in Spiritual Practices. Edited by Phil Halstead. Auckland: Archer (forthcoming).

• ‘Theological facets of He Poi, an Indigenous chant,’ in Reclaiming our tribal voice. Edited by Anne Pattel-Gray. Melbourne: ATF (forthcoming).

Peer-reviewed articles

• Lyndon Drake. ‘Translating Hebrew יהוה into the Māori language.’ Anglican Journal of Theology in Aotearoa and Oceania 2.1 (2023).

  Abstract

  This article presents an argument for the continued use of Ihowā as a Māori language translation for Hebrew הויה (YHWH, “Yahweh”). It proceeds by surveying the uses of יהוה in antiquity, considering translation practices, and then examining existing terms rendering יהוה in Māori. A number of candidate Māori words are then presented: Io, Iawe, Ariki, and Ihowā. For scholarly use, Iawe is preferable, while for popular use in liturgy or Bible translation, the traditional Ihowā should be retained.

• ‘Did Jesus oppose the prosbul in the forgiveness petition of the Lord’s Prayer?’ Novum Testamentum · 56 (2014), 233–44.

  Abstract

  The forgiveness petition of the Lord’s Prayer includes the condition that the petitioner must forgive their own “debtors,” widely taken to be a metaphorical reference to sin-forgiveness. In this article, I argue that to Jesus’ contemporaries “debt” would have been an unusual way of referring to sin, and that the choices made by the Matthean and Lukan redactors show that they understood the Jesus-saying to enjoin debt-forgiveness as well as sin-forgiveness. The prosbul was the only way for pious contemporaries to avoid the Torah’s requirement to periodically forgive debts, and so Jesus opposed the prosbul by enjoining precisely the behaviour which the prosbul made unnecessary.

• Lyndon Drake. The Interaction Between Inference and Branching Heuristics. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing (SAT 03), Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Springer-Verlag) · Jan 2003

  Abstract

  We present a preprocessing algorithm for SAT, based on the HypBinRes inference rule, and show that it does not improve the performance of a DPLL-based SAT solver with conflict recording. We also present evidence that the ineffectiveness of the preprocessing algorithm is the result of interaction with the branching heuristic used by the solver.

• Lyndon Drake, Alan M. Frisch, Inês Lynce, Joao Marques-Silva and Toby Walsh. Comparing SAT preprocessing techniques. Proceedings of the 9th Workshop on Automated Reasoning · 2002.

• Lyndon Drake. Automatic generation of implied clauses for SAT. Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP 2002), Doctoral Programme · Sep 2002

  Abstract

  Propositional satisfiability testing algorithms are generally based on backtracking search, along with some simple inference (such as unit propaga- tion). Adding more inference to search can be beneficial, by pruning the search space enough to make the cost of applying the inference worthwhile. We present a summary of existing work on combining inference and search, along with preliminary results of a comparison of inference-based preprocessing algorithms.

• Lyndon Drake, Alan M. Frisch, Ian Gent and Toby Walsh. Automatically reformulating SAT-encoded CSPs. Proceedings of the International Workshop on Reformulating Constraint Satisfaction Problems · Sep 2002

  Abstract

  We examine two encodings of binary constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) into propositional satisfiability (SAT). We show that hyper-resolution rules can be used to infer, from the direct encoding, many of the clauses in the better- performing support encoding. Our experimental results confirm that applying hyper-resolution in this way reduces both the runtime and the number of search nodes used by a SAT solver on the encoded CSPs.

• Lyndon Drake, Alan M. Frisch and Toby Walsh. Combining inference and search for the propositional satisfiability problem. Proceedings of the Eighteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 02), Doctoral Consortium · Jul 2002

  Abstract

  The most effective complete method for testing propositional satisfiability (SAT) is backtracking search. Recent research suggests that adding more inference to SAT search procedures can improve their performance. This paper presents two ways to combine neighbour resolution (one such inference technique) with search.

• Lyndon Drake, Alan M. Frisch and Toby Walsh. Adding resolution to the DPLL procedure for Boolean satisfiability. Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on the Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing (SAT 2002) · Jan 2002

  Abstract

  We study the tradeoff between inference and search in the Davis Putnam algorithm. We show that neighbour resolution, a restricted form of resolution applied during search, can be simulated by applying binary resolution before search. We compare experimentally the cost of the two different methods. Our results demonstrate that binary resolution during preprocessing is generally effective at reducing both the size of the search tree and the total search time.

• Lyndon Drake, Alan M. Frisch and Toby Walsh. Automatic Generation of Implied Clauses for SAT. In Toby Walsh (Ed.), Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming, LNCS 2239. Springer-Verlag · 2001.

• Simon Colton, Lyndon Drake, Alan M. Frisch, Ian Miguel and Toby Walsh. Automatic Generation of Implied Constraints: Initial Progress. In Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Automated Reasoning, 2001, 17-18.

Conference papers

• with Sophia Johnson. The Subjugation of the Gibeonites: Israelite Identity and Persian Imperialism in Joshua 9. Deuteronomistic History, SBL 2024: San Diego (forthcoming; abstract accepted)
• Restraint and inequality. Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy, SBL 2024: San Diego (forthcoming; abstract accepted)
• Economic practices and identity construction. EABS 2024: Sofia.
• The Māori and ancient Near Eastern pantheons in the context of Genesis 1 in te reo Māori. ANZABS 2023: Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland.
• The rhetorical effect of materiality in a text: Money, exchange, and writing in the field purchase of Jeremiah 32. EABS 2023: Siracusa.
• Tropes in postcolonial uses of the Bible for indigenous identity formation. EABS 2023: Siracusa.
• Jeremiah 32 as a microcosm of the Book of Jeremiah: Economic writing and prophetic writing. IOSOT Congress 2022: Zurich.
• Capital in documents from the Judaean Desert: Ownership and time preference. Oxford Dead Sea Scrolls Colloquium (70 years of the Dead Sea Scrolls) 2019: Oxford.
• Ngā pou whakairo o Te Karaiti Te Pou Herenga Waka. Te Tumu Whakapono 2019: Victoria University of Wellington.
• Biblical economic texts in the light of Modern Monetary Theory. ASOR 2018: Denver, CO.
• Economic justice: Towards a biblical theology of capital. Oxford-Hebrew University Graduate Conference 2017: Oxford.

Review articles

• ‘Review of Anderson, Gary A., Christian Doctrine and the Old Testament: Theology in the Service of Biblical Exegesis,’ Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 42.5, 170 · 2018
• ‘Review of Kaminski, Was Noah Good? Finding Favour in the Flood Narrative,’ Pacific Journal of Baptist Research · Nov 2014
• ‘Review of Walton and Sandy, The Lost World of Scripture: Ancient Literary Culture and Biblical Authority,’ Pacific Journal of Baptist Research · Nov 2014

Other articles

• The spiritual gap in national life which Matariki can help fill, (Wellington: The Post, 28 June 2024)
• Approaching a Biblical Economic Ethic – Part 4: Virtues of Growth and Restraint, (Oxford: The Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics, April 2023).
• Approaching a Biblical Economic Ethic – Part 3: The Task of Modern Economic Ethics, (Oxford: The Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics, April 2023).
• Approaching a Biblical Economic Ethic – Part 2: Types of Creativity in Biblical Texts, (Oxford: The Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics, Jan 2024).
• Digital frontiers and indigenous voices, Flint & Steel Magazine (Auckland: Maxim Foundation, November 2023).
• Mandate shift – considering the impact from investments, too, (Auckland: Institute of Directors, August 2023).
• Approaching a Biblical Economic Ethic – Part 1: The Sins of Biblical Economists, (Oxford: The Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics, April 2023).
• Why we need the Church. Common Ground (Auckland: Venn Foundation, June 2020).

Journals edited

• Guest editor of a special edition of the Evangelical Review of Theology on Business and Theology, January 2017. (Articles by Chris Wright, Kar Yong Lim, Myk Habets & Peter McGhee, Emiola Nihinlola, John Jefferson Davis, and Miroslav Volf. I contributed a number of review articles.)

Invited talks

• Theological facets of He Poi, an indigenous chant. Raising Our Tribal Voice conference, University of Divinity, Melbourne · 8 Feb 2024.
• Eco-churches and mana whenua. Arocha New Zealand · 19 Sep 2022.
• NZCIS Winter Lecture: Acquiring and using knowledge: divine revelation, matauranga Māori, and science. New Zealand Christians in Science · 30 Aug 2022.
• Artificial intelligence and ethics. University of York · 28 Jul 2022
• Launch event for Capital Markets for the Common Good. London Stock Exchange · 14 Nov 2017.
• Capital markets, quants, & ethics. Oxford Mathematical and Computational Finance seminar · 19 May 2017.
• Economics and artificial intelligence: threat or promise? State of Europe Forum, Malta (Christian event by Sallux.eu and the Schuman Foundation) · 08 May 2017
• Launch event for Evangelical Review of Theology Special Edition on Business and Theology. Nürnberg · 24 Feb 2017
• Inference and search for the propositional satisfiability problem. Swansea University · 05 Jul 2003
• Using inference to improve search on SAT problems. University of Auckland · 21 May 2003
• Research overview. INESC (Lisbon) · 18 Feb 2002

Work

University of Oxford (Research Fellow: August 2024–)

I have recently begun a new role as a Research Fellow in Theological Ethics and Artificial Intelligence, based in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. My focus is to be on the areas of ethics of artificial intelligence, Indigenous theology, and biblical studies. The PI on the fellowship is Prof. Joshua Hordern. I am now permanently based in Oxford.

Māori Anglican Church (plus governance and consulting: Auckland 2017–2024)

In this Māori Anglican bishopric, I lived and worked in the high-deprivation Indigenous Māori communities of the Tāmaki (Auckland) and Te Tai Tokerau (Northland) areas of Aotearoa/New Zealand. I served as the Archdeacon of Tāmaki Makaurau, and was prior to that in a diocesan-wide role as ministry enabler for Te Tai Tokerau. I oversaw the Māori Anglican churches in Auckland.

Initially, we had no staff team members. I have raised substantial external grant funding (lifting annual revenue from $206k when I joined to $935k last year), and built a staff team of over 20 people, along with recruiting a large number of students for ministry training and development. I had responsibility for about 60 licensed ministers, most of whom were non-stipendiary (volunteers).

Our team of staff and volunteers have grown the congregations in size and number, and have a well-developed strategy which is now being replicated in other areas. I announced my resignation and intention to move back to the UK in August 2023, and led a transition process in preparation for my departure.

Auckland Baptist Tabernacle (2012–2016)

From 2012–2016 I worked as an assistant pastor for All Nation/Ngā Whenua Katoa, a congregation which is part of the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle in inner-city Auckland, in a conventional Baptist church ministry role. The congregation I oversaw was multi-cultural and across a wide range of ages.

Consulting/contracting roles (Auckland 2016–)

Alongside my church and governance roles, since 2016 I have developed a small consulting business. Clients have included:

• Tū Whakahē Waipiro: a Māori health organisation, where I am undertaking work on data sovereignty for AI, and public policy.
• Christian Savings: the only charitable lender and deposit-taker in New Zealand, where I helped develop liquidity management, regulatory compliance (AML/CFT, capital adequacy, etc.), and financial operations.
• Te Rarawa: a Māori tribal group where I worked on analysis of a carbon-credit revenue generation scheme for a forest the group own.
• Home Foundation: a housing development charity where I am working on innovative financial structuring for social and affordable housing provision.
• Te Wānanga Ihorangi: a brand new full-immersion Māori language school, where I helped raise grant funding of several million dollars.

Barclays Capital (Interest rate trader — Vice President: London 2000–2011)

Barclays is the largest participant in the UK government bond (gilt) market. I was the short-dated gilt market-maker from January 2007, with a consistent market share and profit record. Part of my role was gilt swap spread trading for the short end of the curve. My market-making responsibilities involved personal control of a large balance sheet and trading volume, and contact with a wide range of state and private sector clients and other institutions. This included regular contact with the UK Debt Management Office, a number of central banks, many large pension funds, and many large hedge funds.

I developed specialist expertise in counterparty risk and collateral management for derivatives products. At the time of the Lehman bankruptcy my manager and I developed a process for large-scale unwinds of derivatives positions that proved effective in managing the bank’s sterling interest-rate counterparty exposure. Putting this process into effect relied on my ability to pull together an ad-hoc team of people from across the company, and under severe time and risk pressure lead them in the successful deployment of a customised analytics system, redeploying a massive compute system in only a few hours. This resulted in our team being given responsibility for assessing global interest-rate counterparty risk for Barclays Capital during the subsequent weeks of the crisis. The process we developed was later adopted for use by the whole bank as its mandated procedure for large-scale risk analysis and unwinds.

I also took part in graduate recruitment and development. Prior to my gilt trading role, I was a software developer, and a junior interest rate swap trader from September 2004 to December 2006, and also ran a small interest-rate options book. Barclays retained me as a consultant during my PhD in York. After I moved to Oxford in September 2010, Barclays employed me as a consultant over the summer of 2011.

Before moving to the trading desk, I was originally a commodities software developer, developing a web-based front office system to replace paper deal entry (retained as a contractor from Sep 2000 while working on my PhD in Artificial Intelligence, ceased work Sep 2002 to focus solely on the PhD, rehired for rates in 2003). From 2003, I was a rates software developer, working on eT (Barclays Capital’s electronic trading platform for fixed income products).

Governance

As part of my involvement in the for-purpose sector, I have undertaken a range of not-for-profit governance roles. Some of these, such as Chairperson of Te Whare Ruruhau o Meri and the Auckland City Mission, were long-term and substantial commitments, while several others were short-term roles where I was generally involved in order to assist with some aspect of change. I was a member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors, and have spoken and written on governance matters.

Key governance roles

Chair Of The Board Of Trustees, Te Whare Ruruhau o Meri Trust Board (Jun 2018 - Apr 2024)

A Kaupapa Māori social service provider, primarily focused on family harm and sexual violence response and prevention services. I was appointed to the Board directly as Chairperson, and since then we have led the organisation as it has more than doubled in size (turnover and service delivery), formed a Foundation to build an asset base and diversify funding sources, and appointed a new CEO. We have pioneered a multi-agency response to social services delivery, in partnership with the Police.

Bloomberg News article on multi-agency partnership approach

Trustee and Audit & Risk Committee member, Auckland City Mission (Jan 2019 – Jul 2023)

The City Mission is active in relieving poverty and homelessness. During my time on the board, we have completed a $120m+ building project in central Auckland (Mission Homeground), which has achieved international recognition, and includes New Zealand’s only specialist medical detox accommodation. Alongside that we significantly increased turnover and service delivery, and Māori cultural awareness.

NZIA award for Homeground

Book on Homeground

Trustee, Venn Foundation (Dec 2018 – Sep 2023)

An education charity for Christian vocational formation through residential internships and other programmes focused on supporting people in working life. Chair from 11/2019–11/2022.

Trustee, Te Hui Amorangi ki Te Tai Tokerau Trust Board (Nov 2017 – Sep 2023)

Oversees about $27m of property assets and $2.5m of investment assets, spread through Auckland and Northland. Chair from 08/2018–05/2022. I personally oversee the investment portfolio, and have led in taking the Trust from no employees to 2.5FTE to date.

Komiti Tumuaki Finance Subcommittee and Ministry and Education Subcommittee (2017 – 2024)

The finance subcommittee oversees the finances of the Māori Anglican bishopric of Te Tai Tokerau. The consolidated entity has turnover of just under $2m/annum. From 2021 I transitioned to leading the other main Subcommittee, which oversees the licensing of ministers.

Short-term governance roles

Chair, Te Kaunihera of Saint John’s Theological College (2020 – 2022)

St. John’s Theological College is the residential seminary for the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. It is also the oldest tertiary training institution in New Zealand (and older than any in Australia).

Member, Laidlaw College — National Governing Council (May 2019 – Nov 2020)

Laidlaw is one of the largest providers of theological education in Aotearoa, and in particular all the tikanga Maori students at St John’s College receive training at Laidlaw.

Member, Te Tauihu (Dec 2017 – Dec 2019)

Te Tauihu is the governance body for Orongonui, the in-house theological training programme for Te Pihopatanga o Te Tai Tokerau.

Member, New Zealand Anglican Church Pension Board Investment Committee (Apr 2018 – Aug 2019)

The investment committee oversees assets of over $200m, under various constraints around pension and other regulations.

Observer, New Zealand Anglican Church Pension Board (Jul 2018 – Aug 2019)

For much of my time on the Investment Committee, I was also able to be a board observer for the main board.

Director, Affordable Housing Aotearoa Limited (Nov 2017 – Aug 2018)

Founding director of this charitable arm of ACANZP. Resigned in order to undertake housing developments in Te Tai Tokerau without conflicts.

Trustee, Karuwha Trust (Jun 2018 – Sep 2019)

The trust undertakes educational and historical work around the early mission and colonial history of Aotearoa, and bishop Te Kitohi Pikaahu is its patron. I helped to grow and secure a funding base for the Trust and give direction to growth in the range and scale of Karuwha’s activities.

Chair, WEA Council for Business and Theology (Nov 2015 – Dec 2017)

I was a founder and chair of this group, which promoted the theology of business and a network around the world.

Chair, Glen Taylor School Board of Trustees (Feb 2015 – Jun 2016)

Decile 1 primary school. I initially joined the school’s Board of Trustees in late 2014 in an advisory capacity and from February 2015 as chair. My role involved rebuilding a dysfunctional board, in conjunction with a special adviser appointed as part of a Ministry of Education statutory intervention. In 2015 we recruited a new principal and deputy principal, substantially restructured the staff, saw the roll grow by 15% and student achievement (particularly for Māori) increase, put in place a property plan and agreement with the MoE, and completed a new charter and strategic plan. In mid-2016 we received a positive Education Review Office report and exited the MoE’s statutory intervention. The school now has a larger board with excellent Māori and Pasifika representation. I stood down in order to move to Oxford.

Treasurer, The Good Shepherd Mission (2006 – 2007)

This church, based in Bethnal Green, operated as a mission within an extremely poor area of east London. The majority of the population in the area around the church was composed of immigrants.