Login / Register 
Menu
Customer Experience Committee
Customer Experience Committee
Sam is currently Group Chief Executive at Halton Housing, a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and has over 3O years’ experience of working in social housing. Prior to becoming Group Chief Executive at Halton Housing Sam held various positions at Muir Group Housing, latterly as Executive Director of Operations responsible for all aspects of housing management, customer service, asset investment and development of new homes.
With over 30 years’ experience of working in complex consumer focussed businesses, Gillian has been an accomplished, result driven Group Marketing Director with a strong strategic focus.
She has substantial digital transformation, customer experience, business development and commercial experience centred on improving the customer proposition and driving top line sustainable growth. Experienced in a diverse range of industry types in the UK, Europe and North America, sectors have included financial services, public transport, home shopping, retail, marketing solutions and credit within complex FTSE 250, CAC40 and market leading organisations.
Companies have included the Studio Retail group, Arriva, part of Deutsche Bahn, The Go- Ahead group, Experian, Pets at Home and the N Brown group. Within Riverside, Gillian has been appointed to the Customer Experience Committee.
Jim was appointed to the Riverside Scotland Board in March 2021 and was elected as Chair in September 2021. Jim is also a Member of Riverside’s Customer Experience Committee
Jim has more than 40 years' experience in the housing sector. He began his career working for local authorities across the west of Scotland before serving as Group Chief Executive of Parkhead Housing Association for 13 years.
Jim is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and served as Chairman of the Scotland Branch, Vice-President and then President of the CIH.
Appointed January 2024
Tracy has worked in Local Government for over 20 years. She manages a service that simultaneously administer the benefit caseloads of two separate London Councils. She’s previously worked in Customer Service, Service Improvement and the Benefit Service’s in one of the most ethnically diverse Local Authorities in London.
Tracy continues to develop her knowledge and strategic leadership through professional development, including a Level 5 Pan London Leadership Programme in Operational/ Departmental Manager Apprenticeship and the Institute of Leadership Management (ILM) Level 5 Diploma.
Tracy is a longstanding One Housing Group resident, now a Riverside resident. and sat on their board as a Non-Executive Director. Following the merge with Riverside, Tracy now sits on Riverside’s Customer Experience Committee. She brings with her a wealth of balanced knowledge and utilises her lived-life experience to help influence service delivery, while keeping the resident voice at the heart of the organisation.
Tracy is a member of the G15 Residents’ Group, the G15 is a group of Greater London’s 11 largest Housing Associations who provide affordable homes to over 800,000 residents/1 in 10 Londoners. The Resident’s Group is a forum set up to deliver resident-led sector change that includes amplifying resident voices and contributing to government policy making.
Appointed January 2024
Paula hase been a general needs tenant for almost 20 years with Riverside and has been a member of Riverside Customer Voice Executive for 4 years.
Her role within RCVE is Media Officer and she runs RCVE social media platforms for 6 reginal groups of riverside customers. This role has given Paula firsthand experience and knowledge of the real-life issues that affect all types of Riverside customers, and this has motivated her to do all she can to develop an improved relationship between Riverside and all its customers.
Paula sits on several customer panels both local and national and has a personal interest in equality, diversity and inclusion. Paula is happy to ask hard-hitting questions and is always encouraging Riverside to be transparent, fair, respectful and accountable if things go wrong.
Paula’s career has always been focused on people, as a licensee and then within a customer support role. For the past 8 years, she has worked for the local authority fostering services and recently been invited to sit on the newly formed Corporate Parenting Board for the local authority’s children’s services.
The satisfaction she gets from helping others be the best they can be, is what keeps her going.
Appointed September 2024
Paul is Executive Director of Customers & Communities at Wythenshawe Community Housing Group. Paul has worked in housing for over 30 years, working in both the Welsh and English regulatory environment for housing associations.
Paul has experience of both operational and strategic management in general needs housing, independent living and extra care, supported housing, care and nursing care.
Paul’s passion is making a difference, hearing the customer voices and using his lived experience of social housing to make a difference to residents and communities.
Appointed June 2025
Angela was Chief Executive Officer at North Star Housing Group for 15 years and has spent her entire career in social housing working for a Local Authority and Housing Associations. Consequently, she has extensive social housing experience alongside a track record in governance through many NED roles, including not for profits, a membership organisation and a PLC.
With a passion for customer service, organisational development and people, she is known for her cultural change work with trust at its heart that has led to successful outcomes. She would describe herself as a seasoned social housing person with particular experience of regeneration, supported housing, development and governance.
Appointed August 2025
Rachel Crownshaw is Group Managing Director for Communities at Places for People – one of the UK’s
largest housing providers – and an experienced board and committee member with a career spanning retail,
financial services, utilities, and social housing. She is a Vice President of the Institute of Customer Service, a
panel member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Housing and Care for Older People and sits on the
Board of the PfP Thrive Academy.
Rachel’s background in customer service, operational excellence, and digital innovation has shaped her
belief that real change starts by listening to those who use and deliver services. As both an executive and a
board member, Rachel has guided large-scale teams through complex transformation while staying rooted in
what matters most: trust, relationships and community impact.
Across all sectors, Rachel has championed customer-led strategy, cultural transformation, and proactive
service improvement. She brings to the boardroom a blend of commercial insight, operational rigour, and a
commitment to making organisations more human, responsive, and inclusive.