Our People posts

Monster Help Day is back! Today, AOL is embarking on its fourth Monster Help Day whereby over 2,000 employees will be supporting 54 volunteer projects across 21 offices worldwide. Monster Help Day, which started in honor of AOL's 25^th birthday, (we are now 28!) enables employees to step away from their busy working lives and give back to the communities around them.

Employees will engage in a variety of different service activities including Hurricane Sandy Disaster response cleanup, painting wall-sized canvases for hospitals and even reading to elementary school children in underserved schools to promote early literacy. The day of service AOLers are doing will total roughly 10,000 hours of community service.

One of our core values at AOL is that we are in the business of helping people, period. And although AOL employees demonstrate this value each and every day, they take it one step further on Monster Help Day.

The charities are in the communities in which our offices are located, as well as near and dear to our employees' hearts. Visit the Monster Help Day website to learn more about AOL's Monster Help Day and the charities we are working with.

AOL celebrates our 28th birthday with the fourth #MonsterHelpDay aol.it/12y0Vss

- AOL PR (@AOLPR) May 16, 2013

It's my pleasure to announce that AOL has hired Cyndi Stivers, a decorated journalist and digital media expert, to join our team as Editor-in-Chief of AOL.com.

In her new role reporting to me, she will drive all editorial and programming across the AOL homepage, all associated apps and syndicated feeds.

She joins us from the Columbia Journalism Review, where she was the Editor-in-Chief. Her award-winning resume prior to that includes senior editorial and management roles with Entertainment Weekly, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, Time Out New York, and Premiere.

There were many characteristics that cemented Cyndi as our top choice including her programming vision, a strong creative track record, and a knack for mentoring editorial talent.

As we evolve AOL.com as a content destination, we will look to Cyndi to ensure the site showcases the most compelling stories relevant to our viewers and drive a distinctive editorial voice. We'll also be relying on her creativity to help us ignite our live programming and add more opportunities for visitors to engage with each other around our content.

Susan Lyne, CEO of AOL's Brand Group, has worked with Cyndi twice before. In her words: "I know first hand that Cyndi will bring world-class editorial leadership and creative thinking to this role with AOL.com. Our entire stable of brands will benefit from her management of the homepage's reach to help drive network wide events to showcase everything AOL has to offer."

"Adding a talent like Cyndi to the AOL.com team is an exciting moment for our brand," says Francis Lobo, President of AOL Services Group. "Her expertise will ensure we continue to provide compelling content and experiences to the millions of people that enjoy AOL.com."

Cyndi will start in early June- please join me in welcoming Cyndi to the AOL family.

Cyndi Stivers (@cyndi497) joins @aol as Editor-in-Chief of AOL.com aol.it/11WaaRd

- AOL PR (@AOLPR) May 9, 2013

Today I'm pleased to share that we have appointed Peter Land as Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications. In this role Peter will develop and oversee AOL's global external and internal corporate communications strategies and work with AOL's brands to drive their respective communications efforts. He'll also work in concert with our investor relations, government affairs and public policy groups. As a member of the company's leadership team, Peter will be based in New York and report to me.

With more than 25 years of senior level communications experience working for several of the world's leading media companies and brands, Peter's ability to navigate the dynamic media and digital environments, develop and manage teams worldwide and work strategically and effectively in both the consumer marketing and corporate reputation arenas will make him a critically important member of our leadership team. He has managed multi-faceted, multi-stakeholder efforts on a global stage, which will become more and more important to AOL as we continue to grow.

Peter joins AOL from PepsiCo, where he served in a number of senior leadership roles – most recently overseeing global media strategy, financial communications and issues management. He joined PepsiCo in 2009 to oversee communications for the PepsiCo America Beverages division and manage the company's corporate digital strategy. Before joining PepsiCo, he was a global managing director of Edelman. He was Director of Marketing Communications for the NBA and worked for Kraft Foods in London as Director of European Promotions. He began his career as a sportswriter for the Washington Post and earned a B.A. from Duke University. He is an adjunct professor at NYU's Stern School of Business.

PepsiCo's Peter Land joins @aol to lead Corporate Communications aol.it/11YVCma

- AOL PR (@AOLPR) April 11, 2013

Marie Goggins, Aengus McClean, Roslynn Williams and Curtis Brown accepting the Best Workplaces in Ireland award for AOL Ireland last night in Dublin

AOL Ireland has been named one of the Best Workplaces in Ireland, coming in fourth in the medium-sized category and is the top tech company on the list at the annual Great Place to Work Awards. This prestigious accolade was presented to the AOL Ireland team in Dublin's Burlington Hotel last night.

AOL CTO Curtis Brown attended the event, along with Aengus McClean, who heads the AOL Ireland team; Marie Goggins, who's responsible for HR across Europe for AOL, and Roslynn Williams, business adviser to the CTO and the Technologies organization.

There are two elements of the Best Workplace ranking: a culture audit and a trust audit in which employee perception of the quality of their workplace relationships is measured with a focus on trust, pride and camaraderie, considered key drivers of all high-performing workplaces.

Dublin AOLers were keen to get involved and share their views, with 92% of the site completing the Trust Audit.

Commenting on the wonderful achievement by 49 organizations, CEO of the Great Place to Work Institute John Ryan said competition for places on the list was at its highest in 10 years as more organizations had chosen to go through the assessment process, clearly appreciating the business benefits of having a high-performing workplace where employees are seen as having a critical impact. "This is a fantastic achievement particularly given the difficult economic backdrop, proving that if you invest time and effort in developing the right culture in your organization, your people will be your best asset and will be key to your business success."

AOL has had an office in Dublin for 16 years and employs more than 160 AOLers. It's located in Heuston South Quarter and focuses on developing global products for AOL Networks, AOL Services and the AOL Brand Group. To see what opportunities are available in Dublin, head to their career site.

.@aolireland named one of the best places to work in Ireland 2013 aol.it/Zmx3OP

- AOL PR (@AOLPR) March 8, 2013