Natick, MA - Oct 24, 2011 - Genelec has made two recent appointments: Siamäk Naghian to the position of managing director, and Nick Zacharov to the position of director of research and development.

Dr. Siamäk Naghian was appointed managing director of Genelec in August 2011. Naghian received his master of science in technology, licentiate in technology and doctor of science in technology degrees form the Helsinki University of Technology, Electrical Engineering Department in Finland. He joined Nokia in the mid 1990s, where he was involved in several research and development, management and leadership positions until mid-2005. Naghian joined Genelec in 2005 as head of Genelec R&D and a member of the Genelec management team. He was appointed executive vice president in 2010, before moving into his new position.

Outgoing Managing Director Veikko Hyvönen states that the change has not come as a surprise either to the company or to himself. "We agreed in writing to this five years ago, when I took on the role. In fact, the story goes back even further to some 25 years ago, before I joined Genelec. I had decided then that by the by the age of 55 I would have given my best contribution to the industry. I am now 55, and my thoughts have now turned to how I can support the next generation. This is why I did my studied education eight years ago and will now put them to good use by teaching."

Dr. Nick Zacharov has been appointed director of research and development. He rejoins Genelec following 16 years working in various parts of the audio and telecommunications industry.

Born in London, Zacharov obtained a bachelor's degree in electro-acoustics from Salford University in the U.K. in 1992. He subsequently received master's and doctor of science in technology degrees from Helsinki University of Technology in 1997 and 2002, in the fields of acoustics and audio signal processing, respectively.

Initially joining Genelec in 1990 as a trainee, and after progressing to the level of acoustic engineer, he then moved to the Nokia Corporation in Tampere, Finland, in 1995, where he worked on audio quality assessment. In 2000 he was a Foreign Research Fellow at the University of Aizu in Japan. He continued working with Nokia until 2007. Thereafter, he joined Delta in Denmark for three years to establish and develop Delta SenseLab, designed to provide listening tests and sensory evaluation services to the audio and telecommunications community.

A Member of the Institute of Acoustics, the Acoustical Society of America, Zacharov is also a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society and a chartered engineer. He has been an active member of the Audio Engineering Society, serving as chairperson, co-chairman of conferences and AES governor. He has also held numerous other professional posts. He holds several audio patents and has more than 60 major publications to his name. He is also co-author of Perceptual Audio Evaluation - Theory, Method and Application, which is the acknowledged textbook in this field.