According to the Catechism and Bokenkoetter’s “Concise History of the Catholic Church”, the Church began with Jesus’ ministry in 33 A.D. After Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension, humans ran it. You may get disagreement from non-Catholics on that (since some seem to follow a unique understanding of history and of the Catholic Church itself), but that is the Catholic perspective.

No Christian of any stripe should disagree with the following:
The first administrators were the Apostles (except for Judas, obviously). As the community of Christians grew over time and the Gospel spread, the Apostles appointed local overseers for each of the churches and divided certain work functions within the churches.

In the Book of Acts, the Apostles appointed deacons to assist with the provision to the needy and elderly – Stephen was the first of these, and also the first martyr after the Resurrection. By the time the last of the New Testament had been written (around 90 A.D.), there were three clear divisions within the church hierarchy:
* The Diaconate, comprised of Deacons, who did the day-to-day work in the Church.
* The Presbyterate, comprised of elders (“Priests” in English, which is an anglicization of the Greek “Presbyteros”) who performed the sacraments and religious functions.
* The Episcopate, comprised of bishops, who oversaw the administration of the Church within a region (later called a Diocese), and often wrote treatises on matters of liturgy or theology in order to settle debates.

The founder was Jesus. He gave the Holy Spirit to the Apostle and commissioned them, saying “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (Jn 20:21)

The first administrators were the Apostles themselves. As their ministry grew and spread, they began appointing others as bishops and priests of the Church as well. One such apostolically ordained bishop was Timothy from the New Testament.

The first recorded use of the term “Catholic Church” was around 110 AD in a letter from St. Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans.

edit: to the poster below me I’ve just provided scripture that supports the Papacy. It’s not baseless and it’s clear Jesus wanted Peter to be the leader. In the custom of prophets Peter was to choose his sucessor before he died.

edit edit: If you’re not going to a Catholic school and are doing a report on this you’d probably want to say Constantine was the founder. I don’t believe that but you might get a bad grade if you don’t say that.

Catholics will tell you that it was when Jesus said “and upon this Rock I will build My church.” They claim that the “rock” Jesus mentioned was Peter (who Catholics also say was allegedly the first pope).