EP24 How do you get the resources you need to achieve your dreams? A conversation with Dr Joanna Abeyie

How do you get the resources you need to achieve your dreams? A conversation with Dr Joanna Abeyie

The story of DR Joanna Abeyie who became an MBE even though she faced hurdles and wasn’t exactly given head start in life is a great example of how to overcome and be relentless when pursuing your goals. 

Joanna has spent the last 14 years, increasing the employment of diverse talent

through inclusive hiring practices and creating inclusive working cultures.

Launching her first charity Elevation Networks Charitable Trust at 18 alongside

six colleagues in 2006, following this 2008 Joanna went on to start her own Social

Enterprise Shine Media in 2008, saw she placed over 3000 people from diverse

backgrounds into work within the creative industries.

Joanna’s latest enterprise is founding Blue Moon, a flagship inclusive Executive Search

Business and Diversity and Inclusion Consultancy Practice. Before BM, Joanna founded

Hyden, part of FTSE 250 Global Recruiter SThree, an executive search and consultancy

business.

Alongside Executive Search success, Joanna 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 from the

top-down and bottom-up. This work, coupled with her personal story, led to her TEDx

Talk on Social Mobility in Oman in 2018.

She has been instrumental in establishing the Creative Diversity All-Party Parliamentary

Group with Baroness Deborah Bull, of which she is a joint secretary. Joanna also sits on

the UKRI Arts & Humanities Research Council and the Department for Digital, Culture,

Media and Sport Expert Advisory Panel Boundless Creativity Joint Research Project, is

an active member of the DCMS and Cultural Renewal Taskforce, Culture Committee

chaired by Tracy Brabin MP and an Everyday Ally for UN Women.

The University of Reading in 2019 awarded Joanna a Distinguished Graduate Award,

and she then received an Honorary Doctorate in Business from the University of West

England in the same year.

Joanna’s responsibilities do not end there; she is a Non-Executive Director for Investors

in People, an Advisory Board member RISE a group for women in Broadcast,

Ambassador Mental Health in Recruitment, Expert Advisory Board Member for New

Scotland Yard Counter-Terrorism Advisory Board and a Trustee for The Lord Mayor’s

Appeal. Joanna is also a Trustee and Director of Haberdasher Askes Trust Federation Board and School Governor of Hatcham College and Mulberry Academy Shoreditch. Joanna was also awarded her Freedom of the City in 2018 and became the first black female to become a Liverywoman for the Worshipful

Company of Haberdashers.

Joanna was also awarded an MBE in the 2020 New Year’s Honours list for her services

to diversity and inclusion in the creative and media industries.