Joanna has over 19 years’ experience in the events industry, gained both as a corporate client and within event management agencies. Starting her events career at a small events agency in Dublin for 3 years, before moving to Imagination for 5 years. Here she worked in Logistics and in Account Management across a portfolio of clients such as Aston Martin, Ford, Coca-Cola, Mazda, Ericsson and Warner Brothers.

Deciding to move client side, Joanna joined the world of Pharma and joined AstraZeneca in 2007. Here she has held various roles within the company (Head of Events for the UK Affiliate, Global Congress Director and currently Global Meetings and Events Regional Director EMEA) but always staying with her passion for Event Management.

Joanna is the ex Vice-President of IPCAA (International Pharmaceutical Congress Advistory Association http://www.ipcaa.org/), sat on the Steering Committee of the ICE Awards (http://www.ice-awards.com/) and has spoken at a number of industry events and courses, including for The Event Academy (https://eventacademy.com/).

She was a founding Mentor on the FastForward 15 Programme back in 2014, (is still in touch with her Mentee!) and is delighted to be asked to return as a Mentor for the 2020/2021 mentoring year.

She lives in the outskirts of London with her husband and 2 young children (who are often more difficult to manage than a boardroom full of corporates….)