Abenaa (Abby) Hayes (she/her/hers)'s Linkedin Analytics

Abenaa (Abby) Hayes helps leaders and brands who want to meet 21st century societal and business mandates head on. The founder and CEO of Elysee Consulting, LLC, she is a seasoned communications and brand marketing executive with expertise in healthcare, corporate reputation, inclusion and social impact. For over 20 years, Abenaa has helped US and global companies reach stakeholders, influencers and communities through transformative narratives, dynamic storytelling and meaningful engagement. She’s currently the Founder and CEO of Elysee Consulting, a communications and marketing consultancy, named after one of her late mother's side hustles. Her current work includes crystallizing inclusive strategies geared towards elevating employer brands; crafting purpose and inclusion-focused narratives to drive brand storytelling; creating bespoke playbooks to guide communications in response to today’s social issues and advising on culturally relevant engagement and communications activations. Abenaa is also a visionary and builder. Prior to launching Elysee Consulting, she founded the Inclusion and Health Equity practice at Real Chemistry (RC), a global health innovation company. At RC, she architected impactful storytelling and brand engagement campaigns on behalf of leading pharmaceutical and biotech clients, including Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Horizon Therapeutics, Genentech, Takeda and more. Abenaa was also a senior executive at Edelman, serving as a senior lead and brand strategist for AstraZeneca and Shire (now part of Takeda). She’s also held leadership roles at Weber Shandwick, MSL and Burson. Recognized as one of the Top 50 of the Future of Black America by pocstock (2024), as well as a “Woman to Watch” by Medical, Marketing and Media (2021), Abenaa has been a featured speaker and panelist at forums such as the Female Quotient's Power of the Pack (2024); Chief X (2022); SXSW (2021); ADCOLOR (2021); and publications including Axios, Essence, Adweek and Entrepreneur magazine. She’s a board member of the Impact Communications Institute, as well as a member of CHIEF, Mixing Board and ForbesBLK. Abenaa holds an MA in broadcast journalism from the Annenberg School at USC and an honors BA in cultural studies from McGill University in Montreal.