Who's Leading
DR Joanna Abeyie MBE
The go-getting 34 year old has blazed a trail as a multi-award-winning social impact entrepreneur; champion of diversity, inclusion, and equality; and an award-winning journalist and broadcaster.
She’s spent the last 14 years increasing the employment of diverse talent through inclusive hiring practices, and by creating inclusive working cultures.
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, a flagship inclusive executive search business and Diversity and Inclusion consultancy practice. Before Blue Moon, 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 culture 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.
She’s been instrumental in establishing the Creative Diversity All-Party Parliamentary Group with Baroness Deborah Bull, of which she’s a joint secretary. She’s a 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 Ambassador for Mental Health in Recruitment, and an Expert Advisory Board Member for both Hal Leonard Europe, and New Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Advisory Group. She’s a member of the APSCo Embrace Steering Committee, the Culture Mile BID Board’s Connected Communities, and The Media Society Council, as well as a Trustee for The Lord Mayor’s Appeal, The Innocence Project London, and Leadership Through Business & Sport. She’s also a School Governor for Hatcham College, Hatcham Temple Grove, and Mulberry Academy Shoreditch.
She was awarded her Freedom of the City in 2018, and became the first black female to become a Liverywoman 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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