Richard Underwood is the FIEC's Pastoral Director. He was previously the General Secretary of the FIEC, having served in this role since November 2004.

Prior to his appointment as General Secretary, Richard was for 11 years the pastor of Soham Baptist Church where he helped to provide pastoral support to the local community in the wake of the highly-publicised child murders. A native of Suffolk, Richard came to faith in Christ in 1967 and was baptised in 1970.  He is married to Pippa, and they have two adult children.

Before his call to the ministry Richard worked in personnel and industrial relations with Eastern Electricity following a graduate traineeship.   He studied politics and history at the University of Kent in Canterbury and was president of the Christian Union there.

Richard is one of the authors of the FIEC's training programme Learn2Lead. He has also been a member of the editorial board of Praise! hymnbook and of Grace Magazine.