Central Iowa women honored with national award
Eileen Gannon and Emily Abbas have been named to PR News’ annual Top Women in PR list.
Gannon is vice president of corporate communications and investor relations at Workiva Inc., and Abbas is chief marketing officer at Bankers Trust Co. The list recognizes women who have made bold advances in managing crises, developing messaging, protecting and building brand reputations and creating exceptional content throughout their careers.
Recipients were honored at a Jan. 26 luncheon in New York City.
Gannon and Abbas are the first women from Iowa to receive this recognition.
Abbas, a Des Moines native, has worked in many public relations roles, including managing large teams and projects in both corporate and agency environments. She also has led teams of more than 100 people in volunteer roles.
In her current position at Bankers Trust, Abbas created a young professionals initiative focused on attracting and retaining the next generation of bank customers and employees. Part of this initiative included a campaign to encourage customers to deposit checks using their mobile phones.
In 2014, Abbas led a new campaign for the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council. As president of Drake University’s National Alumni Board, she led a team of more than 40 people from across the country to execute the alumni relations portion of the university’s strategic plan. DU Good Day was created for alumni and students to gather in cities across the country to volunteer together. She also helped launch Philanthropy@Drake to teach students about the importance of giving back.
Abbas also volunteers with the Central Iowa Public Relations Society of America chapter, the Drake University National Alumni Board, the Des Moines Community Playhouse, Character Counts, United Way of Central Iowa and Education Drives Our Great Economy (EDGE).
Gannon, a native of Mingo, has worked in a variety of public relations roles since 1987. She was an employee of the Environmental Working Group and wrote, published and publicized dozens of reports that garnered press coverage in the early 1990s. The first report she worked on, “Pesticides in Children’s Food” in 1993, was published on the front page of The New York Times and led the Clinton administration to ban a specific class of herbicides, according to a release.
Gannon worked for more than 14 years in private wealth management at Morgan Stanley, where she led numerous seminars, wrote dozens of articles and produced six TV pilots on personal finance. Much of her work in PR while at Morgan Stanley was as a freelancer. She wrote and produced a wide variety of projects, including a commissioned memoir for Des Moines businessman and philanthropist John R. Grubb.
Gannon has spent the last three years at Workiva. In that time, she led the public relations and investor relations teams through a company name change, the grand opening of the company’s corporate headquarters in Ames and a successful initial public offering of company stock.
Gannon also used her PR skills to help several charities including United Way of Story County, Rock and Prevention, the Chrysalis Foundation, Variety–the Children’s Charity and the Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon Foundation.
CONNECT WITH ABBAS on LinkedIn or via email.
CONNECT WITH GANNON on LinkedIn.
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