Aware appoints ex-Sonos’ Erin Souza as company’s first-ever chief people officer
Aware, an enterprise-grade collaboration governance, compliance, and insights platform, has announced the appointment of Erin Souza as the company’s first ever Chief People Officer.
Commenting on her appointment, Jeff Schumann, CEO of Aware said, “We are so fortunate to have Erin join our team and help us scale our culture as the company continues to have explosive growth. Erin’s incredible background and strong people-first mindset perfectly aligns with our values. We are confident that she is exactly what Aware needs to grow and give our employees the support they need to thrive.”
In this newly created position, Souza will be tasked to bring fresh leadership perspective to Aware during a time of incredible growth as the company strives to achieve its mission of empowering employees by creating more empathetic, flexible, and human-centric workplaces.
As the new CPO, Souza headlines the scaling of a strong culture that prioritises innovation, collaboration, and support, both internally and externally. She will oversee the company’s hiring and talent attraction strategy, and design a system to inspire employees to do their best work, grow, and develop their careers.
Another focus will be on coaching and skill development to help managers and leaders cultivate high-performing teams, while encouraging holistic approach to people processes.
Souza boasts a portfolio of 15 years of human resources experience. Previously, she was the VP of People Experience at Sonos where she led the company’s recruitment, growth, and engagement strategies and cultivated the Sonos culture across 15 global offices. Before this, Souza was the VP of Human Capital at Charles River Associates (CRA), a global consulting firm, and worked in financial services.
Erin Souza said,“I’m excited to bring my entrepreneurial spirit together with my love of all things people and culture to Aware and partner with a leadership team that prioritized a people-first philosophy from day one. The last few years have shown businesses must reflect upon what is important and valued to the modern employee. We must listen, adapt and change our priorities to put people first and foremost to attract, develop and retain top talent.”