Sapphire Executive Management Team
Sapphire’s Executive Team provide strategic and operational leadership. They oversee plans and set goals for the long term and oversee the performance of the organisation, while monitoring risks.
Heather Thomas
Chief Executive
Heather joined Sapphire in November 2016. Heather has 20 years’ experience of working at a senior level with different registered providers. With experience of managing diverse housing tenures; she brings considerable experience and knowledge of the housing association sector. She also recently took over as Chair of Croydon Churches Housing Association in South London. She is a corporate member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has a Masters in Organisational Behaviour. She is also a guest lecturer to housing students at South Bank University. Heather also has considerable experience in transformation, customer service, cultural change, performance improvement and governance.
Email: Heather.Thomas@sih.org
Assiah Awaleh
Operations Director
Assiah joined Sapphire Independent Housing in September 2023.
With over 15 years of experience working in social housing, primarily leading customer facing teams, Assiah is passionate about making a difference to places and people. Assiah has developed a strong background in operations and improving service delivery. Assiah is a Non-Executive Director of Barking and Dagenham Homes, as well as Tonic Housing.
Email: Assiah.Awaleh@sih.org
John McNiece
Finance Director
John is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and joined Sapphire as Finance Director in September 2022 having worked in a number of Finance Director and Senior finance roles in Social housing since 2014. He draws on 20 years of senior finance experience from Telecommunications, Utilities and Charity sectors with significant exposure to financial and property management and development. His roles in Social Housing have drawn heavily on this experience in terms of transformation activities, strong financial management, financial planning and treasury improvements.
Email: John.McNiece@sih.org
Beverly Finn
Head of HR and Central Services
Beverly joined Sapphire Independent Housing in January 2009, having previously worked in the private sector in mainly executive management support and human resource management. Beverly has a CIPD L7 Advanced Diploma in Human Resource Management and is an Associate member of CIPD and a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Since joining Sapphire Independent Housing, Beverly has focussed on organisational development, delivering a professional HR service and has taken the lead in the organisation’s communication and marketing strategy.
Email: Beverly.Finn@sih.org