The United Nations Foundation has promoted Aaron Sherinian to VP of comms and PR as part of a broader effort to enhance its outreach campaigns.
Sherinian will handle all PR outreach and communications strategy for the organization, which was founded through a $1 billion gift from Ted Turner. His efforts will focus on bolstering the foundation’s social media efforts, as well as strengthening and expanding collaboration with both NGOs and corporations.
“The UN Foundation is taking an aggressive posture when it comes to utilizing social media and talking to a new generation about UN issues,” Sherinian said. “We think there’s a real market when it comes to the need for information about how to get engaged on a grass-roots level and an emerging generation of philanthropic teenagers who represent a new, globally minded, digitally native group.”
The foundation is investing heavily on youth outreach, particularly through strategic partnerships with organizations including Mashable, MTV, and New York’s 92nd St. Y.
“We’re here to help the UN and it’s becoming increasingly clear that partnerships with corporate America and big brands are the best way to make that happen,” Sherinian added. “That’s where we’re focusing a lot of energy, on busting open the walls so that everyone’s a part of the UN.”
He will oversee 12 full-time staffers along with eight online specialists. The team manages a dozen public-facing campaigns whose subjects range from energy issues to disease awareness, each associated with a UN agency. An upcoming campaign will be based on helping mothers around the world obtain vaccinations for their children.
Sherinian will report to Kathy Calvin, CEO of the UN Foundation. He previously served as the executive director of communications and PR at the foundation. Prior to that, he was the managing director of public affairs for the Millennium Challenge Corporation and worked as a foreign service officer for the US Department of State.
Note: this originally appeared in PR Week on July 1, 2011.