Aaron Ferstman joins IBM to lead international communications
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Aaron Ferstman has joined IBM as vice president of international communications, based in London.
Why it matters: IBM is going through a resurgence given its investments in AI and quantum computing.
- As a recent Fortune headline read, "Is IBM cool again?"
Catch up quick: He joins IBM from Slack, where he oversaw international communications.
- Before Slack, Ferstman supported corporate communications at Yahoo, and led product communications across EMEA for Google and YouTube.
Details: Ferstman will report to chief communications officer Sarah Meron and will oversee the team responsible for internal and external communications in EMEA, the U.K. and Ireland, APAC, Japan, Canada and Latin America.
What he's saying: "IBM is already a massive company, which simply in terms of employee size is much larger than anywhere else I've worked, [and] with that comes an opportunity to drive communications at tremendous scale," he told Axios.
- The international communications team also recently moved from reporting into marketing to now reporting into the communications organization.
- "For the first time, I am beginning a new job shortly after a period of significant organizational change," he added. "I'm looking forward to making sure that communications and marketing remain in lock step and in making certain that executives and business partners experience the change positively."
What's next: Ferstman says he is focused on modernizing the international communications function at IBM.
- "My early perception is that IBM is an incredibly innovative company that is more agile today than it has been in many years. I see this as an open door to, in the coming months, add a fresh perspective, explore how we can conduct communications in a more modern way, inject more creativity to our work, be nimble at scale, and continue to tell the world that the IBM of today is different from the IBM you knew even five short years ago," he said.
- "Additionally, I feel very strongly that the overall IBM story should be told in a local context to help people better connect with the company, our offerings and our brand."
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