Who's Leading
DR Joanna Abeyie MBE
Dr Joanna Abeyie MBE CC, is a Commissioner for the Civil Service, a Common Councillor for
the City of London and Founder and Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Consultancy
Blue Moon & Partners, Author of Pearson Published book, Inclusion Needs You and former
Head of Creative Diversity of the BBC.
The 36-year-old has blazed a trail as a multi-award-winning social impact entrepreneur,
champion of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility and a former award-winning
journalist and broadcaster.
Joanna has spent the last 18 years increasing the employment of diverse talent through
inclusive and unique hiring practices, and by creating inclusive working cultures through
cultural transformation and strategy.
In 2006, at aged 18, she launched her first charity, Elevation Networks, alongside six
colleagues. In 2008, she started her own social enterprise, Shine Media, which saw her place
over 3,000 people from diverse backgrounds into work within creative industries.
Her latest enterprise is founding Blue Moon & Partners, a flagship inclusive executive search
business and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion consultancy practice. Before Blue Moon &
Partners, she founded Hyden, part of FTSE 250 global recruiter SThree, an executive search
and consultancy business.
Alongside executive search success, she has an impressive track record in attracting,
recruiting, retaining, and promoting diverse talent, and leading businesses through cultural transformation, unique recruitment processes, and challenging bias top-down and bottom-up. This work, coupled with her personal story, led to her 2018 TEDx Talk on Social Mobility in Oman.
Joanna’s role as Common Councillor for Cornhill Ward for the City of London, includes her
roles as committee member for Community and Children’s Services board, Homelessness
and Rough sleeping boards, the Education Board, The City of London Police Professional
Standards, and Integrity Board, and is Deputy Chair of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
sub-committee, and is a former member of the Culture Mile BID Board’s Connected
Communities.
She’s been instrumental in establishing the Creative Diversity All-Party Parliamentary Group
with Baroness Deborah Bull and Chi Onwurah MP, of which she’s a joint secretary. She’s an
Advisor to Erskine Analysis, a think-tank focussed on soft power, the global creative
industries, and the future of the UK economy.
She is a former panel member for the Boundless Creativity project from the UKRI Arts &
Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and
Sport (DCMS) Expert Advisory Panel. She’s an active member of the DCMS, the Cultural
Renewal Taskforce, and the Culture Committee chaired by Tracy Brabin MP. She’s also an
Everyday Ally for UN Women..
Her responsibilities don’t end there; she’s a Non-Executive Director for Investors in People,
an Expert Advisory Board Member for both Hal Leonard Europe, and New Scotland Yard’s
Counter Terrorism Advisory Group. As well as a Trustee for The Lord Mayor’s Appeal, The
Innocence Project London, and Patron for Leadership Through Business & Sport. She’s also a
School Governor for Shoreditch Park, and Mulberry Academy Shoreditch.
She was awarded her Freedom of the City in 2018 and became a Livery woman for The
Haberdasher’s Company. In 2019, the University of Reading awarded her a Distinguished
Graduate Award, and she received an Honorary Doctorate in Business from the University of
West England that same year..
She was awarded an MBE in the 2020 New Year Honours list for her services to diversity and
inclusion in the creative and media industries.
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