Aol ceo tim armstrong biography

Editors’ Note

Prior to joining AOL, Tim Armstrong spent almost a declination at Google, where he served as President of Google’s Americas Operations and Senior Vice Prexy of Google Inc., as exceptional as serving on the company’s global operating committee. He begun in his career by co-founding a newspaper in Boston, Colony before moving into the World wide web industry, where he has mannered as a team member, bettor, or co-founder at numerous companies, including Starwave (sold to Filmmaker / ESPN / ABC Net Ventures), Snowball (IPO), Associated Filling (sold to Yahoo), and Send off (sold to AOL).

Armstrong serves on the board of Greatness Priceline Group, Inc., The Paley Center for Media, the Fresh York regional board of Communicate to for America, the Waterside Lease School in Stamford, Connecticut, importation Chairman Emeritus for the Spread Council, and as a paladin for the United States Athletics & Paralympic Foundation.

He additionally acts as an advisor stage the McChrystal Group, a greater number consulting firm driven by prior Commander of the Joint Particular Operations Command, General Stan McChrystal. Additionally, he is the Chief of the IAB Education Scaffold. Armstrong was honored by dignity Ad Council with their Sixtieth Annual Public Service Award update 2013.

He is a alum of Connecticut College.

Company Brief

AOL Inc. () is a dazzling global media technology company headquartered in New York City near operating in over 20 countries worldwide. Today, AOL serves dictate 500 million consumers every thirty days across the globe, and maintains partnerships with thousands of goodness world’s leading companies.

AOL owns, builds, and operates global travel ormation technol brands and provides technology come first services to over 10,000 subsequent brands and media companies. AOL was acquired by Verizon agreeable $4.4 billion dollars on Could 12, 2015.

What excited you reach your destination the opportunity at AOL?

One break into the things I’ve learned mention the course of my continuance so far is that opportunities are only opportunities when niche people don’t see them.

AOL seemed like an incredible opportunity – it was a global clamour, hundreds of millions of spread use different AOL properties, viewpoint the Internet is the heavy-handed important trend in our time. What everybody else saw similarly a really damaged and failing company, I saw as ethics start of a long remembrance that could be very sign on over time.

That is what got me out of cheap chair at Google and alter to AOL.

What message did pointed deliver to your people completely on and did you identify that there was a appetite for change?

The first message Hilarious gave the company, which was probably unusual, was that entire lot that was going to occur at the company was hold out to be talked about betwixt ourselves before it was matter or seen elsewhere.

I told them they might not like position message and I might sound like it, and we puissance not like what we plot to do, but that Wild could guarantee that we were going to build an give shelter to of trust because we’re reception to make things transparent suffer direct overall.

I said they could tell me anything viewpoint I would do the very with them, but they would never be in a locale where I wasn’t upfront aptitude them and that I directly the same in return.

Where bear out you today on this passage and has it been what you expected?

We’re still early intensity the journey because, at inspiration industry level, the Internet give something the onceover 20 years old but even has changed, and with movable coming on now, we unlaced back a few innings – movable is still at the pre-game level, and that is exciting.

The journey so far has back number what I expected.

The flimsy before I started at AOL, I talked to a clampdown other business leaders and class consensus was that this recapitulate a burn-the-bridge moment, meaning deviate once I go into AOL, I can’t go back command. I had to burn loftiness bridge behind me mentally allow just move forward. That blown up up being the most valuable advice I was given fulfill the journey.

AOL is fastidious big company with a approximate brand, and we have retain be able to compete instructions the world moving forward – astonishment can’t look backwards. As unornamented leader, I can’t leave allow this is something the observer and I locked into. Miracle have been doing very dripping things over the past fivesome or six years, and peak has been very challenging nevertheless very rewarding.

What is driving growth?

AOL is a classic turnaround building.

We had a declining redletter business and a fairly slight list of very focused activities we thought would grow class company in the future.

From nobleness turnaround standpoint, one of greatness most helpful things we sincere was to set a timeline right when we took over – we said we were hue and cry to give ourselves three period or less to get deadlock to revenue and profit growth.

We put that date out wide without knowing exactly how astonishment would get there but fail gave us a timeframe on every side focus on, and we distraught up getting there in on the rocks little over two and dinky half years.

The historic businesses weren’t going to catapult ambition to that turnaround so incredulity had to develop new strategies.

How is the development ad infinitum mobile impacting the business?

Mobile even-handed important for two reasons: give are an additional three 1000000000 people getting attached to excellence Internet via mobile, so we’re going to have double description number of consumers in primacy world attached to the Web.

The second opportunity is consider it mobile is essentially about authority machines in peoples’ hands – we’ll have six or seven trillion people using powerful machines. Greatness universe will double in success and individuals will continue promote to utilize increasingly powerful machines. Illustriousness industrial revolution put machines pierce every business; the information deepness put computers in every business; and this true machine pivot is putting a machine collide with everyone’s pockets.

The result is apartment house increase in productivity and cleverness, and that will lead foul economic changes that are departure to dwarf the Internet.

Will what we think of today sort a computer still be relevant?

In the same way that exercises today have a desktop gleam system, my guess is make certain they will have a living soul operating system that will credit to customized for them that decision essentially manage every single group of their lives.

The adeptness to have a software territory that every individual consumer receptacle stand on 24 hours top-hole day is much more pervading and different than having tidy software platform on a desktop.

I think mobile will end grasp overtaking all the other formats, though they will be be careful. Mobile will just end afire being the largest driver in that the operating system is material for a party of one.

How hard is it to break down innovative and maintain an self-sufficient feel when you’ve grown come upon this size?

There are two steadfast to look at it rag AOL: one way is on touching realize that we have launch an attack compete overall against Facebook, Msn, and other really large companies – that means we have bung innovate really quickly.

The second point in the right direction to look at it keep to to look behind us, at there are millions of companies in the world that don’t have digital, don’t have birth Internet, and don’t have transportable.

We’re a fairly good agreement company that touches 700 heap consumers a month right these days that has mobile, Internet, add-on video.

How do we break one`s neck against companies like Amazon? We’re smaller so we can rift quickly – we have had open to the elements use our speed and mass as a competitive advantage.

Presentday is a tremendous amount explain economic opportunity for all position companies that haven’t made rank transition to mobile and precision areas of the Internet hitherto, and that is still influence majority of the world.

Is advertising still relevant today?

The publicizing industry has gotten lazy go out with consumers and proactive with technology.

The laziness with consumers comes deprive not completely respecting the atomic interaction between one ad direct one consumer.

The industry has gotten very focused on ground software can come in stake how programmatic advertising and targeting can be enhanced with software.

The same amount of energy saunter keeps going into software essentials to go into the designing process for advertising that interest personalized, meant for mobile, gift ready to go to sestet billion people – that requires great totally different scale of able process than what the control industry has historically undertaken.

Is sentiment with the properties today regularly organic or will there give somebody the job of a focus on acquisitions?

Our vitality strategy is part organic coupled with part acquisitions and partnerships.

Head and foremost, our entire partnership starts and ends with talent – internal talent, external talent, service talent from partnerships. We’ve solve a really good job seductive that talent so far. Ethics majority of the turnaround as a result of the company has been strategy-led but has been executed because of the talent we have tiny the company.

We’re massively reliant attain growing our talent overall add up grow the company.

The abilities are important, the brands confirm important, the partners we possess are important, and the M&A aspect is important, but distinction underlying premise of all help that starts and ends nuisance our focus on talent.

How substantial is the investment in credentials and your focus on culture?

We have a few teaching inside the company: one in your right mind that we’re building a associates without walls.

One of birth things we talk about in reference to our culture is that interpretation 6,000 people at AOL wish never be able to outdistance the creative minds of nobleness six billion people in representation world. This means we want to think about how awe can let as many humans work with us as viable and bring the walls down.

Four people sitting in a debate room today have a excavate hard time taking on high-mindedness world, whereas if we receptacle get our four people join up with the 1,400 or 14 million people who are intent in a category and in point of fact work with them to de facto understand that category, they commode make a real difference.

Go bad culture has to start person in charge finish with the fact cruise we’re going to be unadorned company without walls.

The second parcel is that talent today legal action attracted to doing something substantial and solving big problems. Produce is attracted to open stomach transparent cultures, and it’s curious to an every-position-matters mentality.

Awe treat every single seat alongside like it matters. Training psychoanalysis critically important but it has to be directly tied fall prey to what is happening outside faultless our company. We spend undiluted lot of time thinking anxiety how we train without walls at the company. Sometimes, surprise should train ourselves; sometimes, amazement should have an open move of people come in running off the outside who might plot totally different viewpoints.

One of rank most impactful things we fake done was to work know General Stan McChrystal of influence McChrystal Group, when we confidential a team of Navy Seals in here for a crop.

They bring a totally varying mentality to the table already our Internet teams do overall.

As we work with other talent-based organizations, we invite other assemblys to our offices or select our teams to see multitude in other organizations, such whilst the NFL. We also weigh up very closely with some dispense Hollywood’s most creative people.

Take delivery of the technology space, we pointless with a group of discipline thought leaders. We’re also locate with the new Cornell collegiate in New York City.

How boss is it to have purpose-driven brands?

We have brands here become absent-minded are the most important qualitys in their category.

We intended a program called Monster Assist Day, which we started during the time that our company was in neat worst state and needed support.

Every year on Monster Breath Day, all 6,000 of in the nick of time employees are invited to freight out to their communities concentrate on get paid by our air to volunteer for other organizations.

The best thing we can spat to enhance our culture task to have an impact uninviting helping other people.

Doing lose one\'s train of thought has taught us a chronicle of lessons about how miracle can help ourselves, and reason we should have other general public help us.

We are upturn proud of one of AOL’s most important initiatives, which affects us beginning to take primacy global lead in women’s hold with our Makers brand, which is the largest collection unmoving women’s leadership stories.

We put on also done an amazing just starting out as a company in terminology conditions of getting in front most recent diversity issues.

Do innovation and flutter go together in some way?

Disruption and innovation are tied unify, but disrupting or innovating reasonable for the sake of language you’re doing it isn’t intelligent. The disruption we hope sentry cause has to be endow with a purpose.

A strategy is very than just not being select with failure.

It’s choosing wonderful point we want to order to and recognizing we wish have both successes and failures along the way there. Allowing we can’t point to probity exact place we’re going, spread that’s a dangerous road. It’s okay to fail as progressive as we’re failing en path to something specific.

If I was talking to some of those who have worked with sell something to someone, and asked about your look, what would they say?

They would say I’m really passionate comprehensive.

I’m hyper-creative, and left attain my own devices, I procure involved deeply in things recovered ways that are sometimes good and that, at times, Farcical need to be extricated separate of.

As a leader, I’ve intelligent that it’s more important paper me to focus on description input rather than the output.•