Terence M. Vinson
Terence Michael Vinson is a retired financial adviser. He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was sustained as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy on April 6, 2013. He served for five years in the Africa West Area Presidency, two of those years as area president. On August 1, 2018, he was named a member of the Presidency of the Seventy. His release from that assignment effective August 1, 2021, was announced at General Conference on April 3, 2021. He continued to serve as a General Authority Seventy until he was released and granted emeritus status during the 191st Semiannual General Conference (October 2021).
Vinson was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on March 12, 1951. In 1974, he received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and statistics from Sydney University and an education and teaching diploma from Sydney Teachers College. That same year, he joined the Church of Jesus Christ and married Kay Anne Carden. He and his wife are the parents of six children.
In 1990, he received a financial planning diploma from Deakin University. In 1996, he earned a master’s degree in applied finance from Macquarie University. Over the span of his career, he has taught math, trained and lectured at universities, and worked in finance. At the time of his retirement in 2011 he was CEO and chairman of Northhaven Wealth Management, a company he founded.
Vinson has served in many callings, including bishop (twice), bishop’s counselor, stake president’s counselor, stake high councilor, regional representative, mission president’s counselor, early-morning Seminary teacher, temple ordinance worker, temple sealer, and Area Seventy. After his designation as emeritus status, he and his wife served as service mission leaders in Australia working with the young service missionaries in New South Wales.
In February 2024, he and his wife accepted a call to serve in a new Church calling as area service mission specialists in the Pacific Area. The Church announced last September that — beginning in January 2024 — service missionaries would be integrated into the traditional mission structure.
A service mission leader couple provide day-to-day supervision to each young service missionary, and they also serve as a link between the mission president, stake presidents, service missionaries, parents and charitable partners.
Elder Vinson explained to the Church’s Pacific Newsroom that as area service mission specialists, he and his wife will be supporting all service mission leaders throughout Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and the island nations and territories of the South Pacific.[1]
In the past, some in the Church might have viewed a service mission as somehow less valuable than a teaching mission. “They are wrong,” Elder Vinson said. “A mission is a mission is a mission. . . . All missions are an acknowledgement to the Savior of our commitment to Him.”[2]
