As Alltech’s chief of staff, Susanna Elliott directly supports the communications of the president and CEO, Dr. Mark Lyons, and she drives key projects in order to ensure the company maintains its speed of
innovation. She has also been instrumental in launching and bringing to life Alltech’s vision for a Planet of Plenty™, which aims to elevate the agrifood sector by highlighting its ability to address several of the most significant issues our planet faces. Elliott most recently served as head of communications at Alltech. In this role, she led an international team, including media relations, content marketing, editing, social media, digital, corporate media and graphics.
Previously, as corporate communications manager at Alltech, she handled media relations, reputation management/crisis communications, strategic messaging, corporate and executive communications, editorial strategy and content conceptualization, writing and editing. This included driving communications during a significant period of growth for Alltech, during which 20 mergers and acquisitions took place that vaulted the company from $500 million to $2 billion in the span of a few short years.
She also worked with the global communications team to develop the company’s first online newsroom, first global press kit —the winner of a Gold ADDY Award —and significantly increased the company’s media coverage, including first-time coverage of its core animal nutrition business in top-tier general media, such as The Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune. In addition, she facilitated increasing integration of the company's content marketing, in part through the creation of a creative agency approach, which she led. Elliott was the PR manager for Alltech’s $32 million title sponsorship investment in the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ 2010. She helped the animal nutrition brand introduce itself on a global stage, in part through working with more than 1,100 media from 60 countries on-site during the 16-day Games to secure Alltech’s first network and mainstream media interviews. She also crafted the communications strategy for Alltech’s unique global partnership for the Games with 67 companies in 38 countries. Alongside these major initiatives, she developed the communications strategy for the Alltech Fortnight Festival, a three-year statewide entertainment extravaganza with more than 100 concerts.
Elliott is a graduate of Alltech’s Mini-MBA executive management program held in conjunction with University College Dublin. Additionally, she has received certification from the Institute for Crisis Management and is a member of the Aviation ERP team, having received training from the Safety Compliance Group. She received a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Asbury University and served as an assistant to the governor of Kentucky prior to joining the Alltech team in 2008.