LEXINGTON PARK, Md. – Each year, Employee Ownership Month offers a time to celebrate shared ownership of dedicated workforces across the county. This year, AVIAN hosted briefings, presentations, featured employee-owner spotlights, team-building events, and fundraisers to celebrate our ownership story – The AVIAN Way.
AVIAN has been employee-owned since 2018. To reach nearly 400 employees across the country, AVIAN’s corporate communications team planned live-streamed summit sessions throughout the month of October to educate employee owners about its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) and to inspire employee owners around purpose and passion.
“We have an incredible team of passionate, talented individuals at AVIAN,” said Tara Strickland, senior director of strategic communication at AVIAN. “This year we wanted to share their stories because they are the reason AVIAN is what it is today.”
The summit began with AVIAN’s annual Fall All Owners Meeting led by AVIAN’s CEO, Kevin Switick. In the live stream, employee-owners heard how the company has tracked its resolutions and goals for the calendar year and the many successes of the company.
Other sessions during Employee Ownership Month included featured training opportunities for employee-owners to learn deeper concepts related to AVIAN’s Principles and Promises, podcast talks about employee ownership, and featured capability spotlight stories.
“The spotlight stories we shared connect our people with our products,” Strickland said. “Hearing first-hand how purpose contributes to our work builds stronger connections between employees and helps future clients understand our why.”
The summit also included a raffle for several prizes valued at over $100 each. Proceeds from the raffle went toward AVIAN’s Employee Ownership Foundation ESOPATHON team to raise money and awareness toward employee ownership. Four winning raffle tickets were drawn at the end of the month for these prizes.
“Now that we’ve hosted our first month-long summit, we can spend the next 12 months thinking about how to make next year’s event even better for our employee-owners,” Strickland said.
About AVIAN
AVIAN (*ae-v-yin*) is an employee-owned business with over 400 employees and annual revenue exceeding $68 million. Headquartered in Lexington Park, Maryland, the company provides engineering design and systems engineering; test and evaluation of manned and unmanned aerial, surface, and subsurface systems; program, financial, and logistics management; workforce development and training; and communication strategy and graphic design solutions to 80 government and commercial clients across the United States.
Founded by two U.S. military test pilots in 2005, AVIAN has consistently grown over the past 17 years and is recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of America’s fastest-growing private companies for 10 consecutive years, as well as one of the nation’s Best Places to Work.
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