New York - Jul 20, 2011 - Jim Kaiser, president of the Audio Engineering Society has announced that Roger Furness, AES executive director since 1994, will step down from his position at the end of 2011. An AES member since 1975, Furness has served as section chair, vice president AES Europe and as AES president. To ensure continuity in all aspects of the AES organization, the AES executive committee has asked him to remain as executive director emeritus throughout 2012.

"My 17 years as AES executive director have been an exhilarating and deeply gratifying experience," Furness said. "I have thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with convention committees on nearly 40 major events in the United States and throughout Europe. I have also been privileged to work with AES members around the world on hundreds of conferences, workshops and internal events. I take great pride in these accomplishments and in having guided the AES through the particularly difficult times experienced by the entire professional audio industry over the past decade. I look forward to continue to contribute my time and energy to this indispensable organization in future years."

Jim Kaiser reports that the executive committee will form an executive director search committee and that a call for application announcement will be forthcoming. "Roger Furness has performed an important and extremely difficult job for the AES for the past 17 years," Kaiser said. "We greatly appreciate his decision to continue to work with us after a qualified replacement has been found, to insure a smooth transition."