Welcome to WISH North West

Chief Executive at Irwell Valley Housing Association

Sasha joined Irwell Valley Housing Association in Greater Manchester as Chief Executive in January 2017. She was previously Deputy CEO at Wulvern Housing Association in Cheshire. Prior to this, she has worked in a variety of roles in housing, third sector and private sector with a focus on impactful regeneration and development. She is passionate about the difference brilliant social housing can make for individuals and in communities. She is Chair of Women in Social Housing North West and a Board member of North West Housing Services (the UK’s largest mutual services agency for housing co-operatives). She is also Chair of the Centre for Women’s Justice, a national human rights charity. Collaborative working with communities and engagement with tenants and residents have been driving forces throughout her career.

Email: [email protected]

Jacquie is an Accountant by trade but has specialised in tax for 27 years. Jacquie typically works in the non profit sector and advises on all sorts of issues including group strategy, gift aid, flexible pay packages to name a few. Her clients are interested in an overall service including company taxes as well as personal tax positions too.

Jacquie is Treasurer for WISH North West.

email: [email protected]

Kerry is founder member of the Northwest region and has extensive experience within the housing sector.  Kerry’s career started at Bolton at Home as trainee building surveyor, Kerry then moved to a Regional Contractor as Contracts Manager managing schemes and frameworks circa £6m pa.  Kerry is now part of the senior team at Connollys Ltd.  Kerry leads on Social Value and business development For Connollys.  Outside of work Kerry is a volunteer ride leader for Breeze, part of British cycling, the Breeze group and Ethos aims to provide opportunity for Women to take up cycling within a social environment for mental health and fitness benefits.

Email: [email protected]

Since starting in construction in 2012 Emma has strived to challenge herself, make a difference in the sector and smash through the barriers of being a woman in construction. Having started as a trainee bid writer, she now works as Business Development Manager for Casey.

As the social media and marketing whizz for WISH North West she is responsible for all event advertising, PR and social media interaction.

Having graduated from Leeds Metropolitan with a Marketing degree, she wants to encourage the next generation consider housing and construction as a choice, not an accident.

Emma is also a committee member of G4C North West, who are on a mission to improve performance, drive best practise and encourage, promote and engage with the next future generation.

Email: [email protected]

Maggie is a management consultant who delivers leadership development programmes and coaching. Her clients include housing organisations, hospices, and charities.  Maggie is a fellow and board member of the Chartered Institute of Housing, and has a wide experience of the social housing sector, working at Director level.  She holds non-executive roles on boards of charities and housing associations. With a strong commitment to tackling poverty and improving quality of life in communities, Maggie is interested in making connections between health, housing and social issues, and is committed to seeing everyone, especially women, thrive and reach their full potential.

Email: [email protected]m

Head of Independent Living for Johnnie Johnson Housing

Tricia Grierson is Head of Independent Living for Johnnie Johnson Housing. This is a strategic role developing innovative Homes and Services for Independent Living and ensuring that at JJH creates partnerships that are beneficial to their residents and to the wider community. Tricia has worked at Johnnie Johnson Housing for 15 years and previously with other Housing Associations, gaining a broad range of housing experience, across the North of England in housing management, regeneration, sales and leasehold management posts.

With a BA Honours degree from Hull University, Tricia is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and a past chair of the North West Regional Board. She works in her local community as Governor of local primary school chairing their Buildings and Environment committee and took on  mentoring role for Poynton High School. Tricia is also a trustee of Age UK Cheshire East

Tricia has been a Board member of WISH (Women in Social Housing) North West since 2012 and is particularly keen to support the development of younger women and those new to the housing world and has organised a number of evets to develop their skills and knowledge.

Email: [email protected]

Business and Marketing Manager at Willmott Dixon

Siobhan Ryder is  senior Chartered Marketer and active member of the CIM and have dedicated my career to obtaining solid marketing credentials including an MSc in Marketing Management with Distinction and the CIM Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing. Working as a New Business and Marketing Manager at Willmott Dixon, I am responsible for raising the profile of the business within the Housing sector and developing lasting relationships with customers and other stakeholders, resulting in loyalty and positive referrals. My fundamental aim is in growing our customer portfolio and creating real value for clients by delivering on our promises, providing customer service excellence and creating the 'wow' factor whilst simultaneously enhancing the lives of the people who live in the communities where we work.

Email: [email protected]

Kam Urwin has over 17 years of experience of working with charitable and not-for-profit companies centred on celebrating diversity and inclusion.

Kam has a passion for working with people and ensuring a more fairness for all, which has led her to working for organisations supporting victims of domestic violence, people with sensory impairments and more recently staff within social housing.

A strong advocate for mentoring as a tool for development and increasing diversity in the work place, Kam has delivered mentoring programmes for HDN across the country for a decade and managed them for the last two years. As a result Kam has a good understanding of the barriers to progression experienced by people and the need for collaborative support to overcome them.

Kam is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and completed her Certificate in Learning and Development in 2014. In September 2016 the HDN Mentoring Programme won the award for CIPD Best Coaching and Mentoring Initiative which everyone at HDN, all their mentoring associates, most importantly all their volunteer mentors and HDN’s members are extremely proud of.

Kam is looking forward to joining the WISHNW Board to continue to create opportunities for people to feel confident and make the most of their talents.

Director of Customer Experience at The Guinness Partnership

Nicole is an executive housing professional with over 15 years leadership experience in both the social housing and commercial sectors. Her current role is Director of Customer Experience at The Guinness Partnership and prior to that Executive Director of Customer and Homes at Wulvern Housing.  She specialises in transformational change, innovative service design and delivering first-class experiences for customers and colleagues. She is also passionate about enabling others to realise their full potential and cultivating talent.

As an architect with a keen interest in how the built environment influences and impacts people’s lives, Gillian has designed and delivered buildings across a range of sectors. Since joining Levitt Bernstein in 2012, she has specialised in housing, both general needs and that for older people – devising inventive solutions to create beautiful and functional places to live. She also campaigns for better quality housing and sits on the GMCA housing strategy steering group.

Outside of practice, Gillian mentors architecture students, volunteers with the Manchester International Festival and spends her spare time learning and honing new craft skills.