Abby’s background is hugely entrepreneurial, including past ventures in the music business, deal facilitating for sport/music/rights holders/personalities, and film funding/product placement. In the late 1990s she co-owned and managed a dotcom PLC (global email product) that she took to float, running the gamut of raising finance and presenting in the city.
She is an experienced headhunter with 20 years direct search experience working for two renowned London talent agencies (The Lloyd Group where she was Head of New Media, and Kendall Tarrant where she was Head of Sponsorship & Experiential Marketing) as well as freelance work with venture capitalists and private clients. Management structure for dotcom start-ups was her specialist area, finding senior directors to work together in the embryonic digital market of the late 1990s/early 2000s. Personal development and emotional intelligence in leadership was a natural progression, and she undertakes a certain amount of life coaching for individuals.
For many years she contracted within the communications/engagement areas of several sectors, most recently for SGN Ltd, one of the UK’s four gas distribution networks. Initially focusing on media services including copywriting, customer communications collateral and campaigns, she spent the several years working alongside her fellow Aitemology® Directors Luke and Mandip on SGN’s Cloud Transformation Programme. Managing the communications, change and engagement piece across the entire programme, she sat within the governance team, liaising between the technical supplier and business users.
Every spare minute of her free time is spent in the surrounding AONB countryside (or further afield in the UK or abroad) photographing nature with some pro camera kit . Her big lens habit is advanced but has enabled her to capture birds, bugs and beasts in minute detail which she then shares via Instagram (absblackbill) and her website (absfab.com).