Tim Armstrong

Timothy M. Armstrong (born December 21, 1970) is an American business executive. He was formerly the CEO of Oath Inc., then a subsidiary of Verizon Communications that served as the umbrella company of its digital content subdivisions, including AOL and Yahoo!. Previously, he was the CEO of AOL Inc. from 2009 until its purchase by Verizon in 2015. A Connecticut College graduate in economics and sociology, Armstrong began his career in journalism. He became known for his online advertising sales in the 1990s, and was appointed marketing director for Seattle-based online entertainment-and-news portal Starwave, which was acquired by Disney in 1998. He was vice-president of sales at the New York-based news-and-gaming company Snowball in 2000. He became U.S. sales chief for Google, and then became President of Google Americas operations. He replaced the outgoing Randy Falco as CEO of AOL in 2009. Education and early career Between 1989 and 1993, Armstrong studied for a double major in Economics and Sociology at Connecticut College. He played lacrosse, was on the rowing team, and coached the women's ice hockey team for four years. He also studied at the Lawrence Academy, and became a trustee of both the academy and Connecticut College. After graduating from Connecticut College in 1993, Armstrong was responsible for teaching high school students in summer classes at Wellesley College, for a program called Exploration. A colleague convinced him to pursue a media career, which resulted in him establishing a financial newspaper for young people in Boston. Titled BIB (Beginnings in Boston), this paper offered advice to young college graduates on entering the workforce. To finance the newspaper, Armstrong and friend Michael Dressler sold their mountain bikes and amounted to a debt of about $100,000. In the fall of 1994, Armstrong and Dressler closed down BIB to run a larger, rival newspaper, Square Deal at Harvard Square, following the death of its chief editor.