Our Senior Team

Cym D’Souza
Chief Executive

Cym D'Souza

Cym D’Souza became Chief Executive of Arawak Walton Housing Association in 1998. Cym is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Cym sits on the Strategic Housing Partnerships in Manchester, Trafford and Stockport.

She is currently Chair of BMENational which is the umbrella forum for over 35 BME housing associations which aims to promote equality and diversity in the provision of housing and support serves. It works under the banner of the National Housing Federation.

She is a member of the advisory group for the North West Housing Forum and the Greater Manchester Providers (Chief Executives) Forum.

She has been a member of the Greater Manchester Police Ethics Committee since 2014 and as of August 2020 became a member of Inside Housing’s new BAME editorial panel.

Amanda Harris
Finance Director

Amanda Harris

Amanda joined the Association in May 2019. She is a CIMA qualified accountant and also has a BA (Hons) degree in European Finance and Accounting.

She has worked in housing for over 22 years and has undertaken many roles within Finance - such as Head of Finance, Financial Accountant and Management Accountant. She’s been involved in many partnership projects and joint ventures and enjoys working for a sector that puts tenants and communities at the heart of housing.

Amanda oversees all aspects of finance and IT, including treasury, long term financial planning, insurance and Value for Money.

Gemma Smith
Operations Director

Amanda Harris

Gemma joined the Association in September 2022. She has a BA (Hons) degree in Housing and Health Social Policy, and she is a certified practitioner of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

She has over 19 years' experience in the public and profit for purpose sector, including holding senior roles in Housing and the NHS.

She is skilled in leading operational teams, giving voice to the vulnerable and leading organisation wide programmes in Service Experience, Safety and Equalities.  

Gemma will oversee our Housing, Customer Service, Maintenance and Communal departments, and will work with Senior Management to ensure the association meets vision and mission objectives in relation to customers and our properties.