President's Message

Jan Abildgaard Pedersen, President

2012 March, Vol 60 No. 3

Greetings, fellow AES members. I believe that we can look forward to a very bright future for our dear Society. We have an all-time high number of AES members, which to me proves that they recognize the great value provided by our events, programs, and services. We have most of the products and services that professionals working in audio are looking for. But we still need to adapt to the changes taking place in the world and to strive to improve the Society and further expand the benefits to our members. I am working with the Executive Committee and the Board of Governors to further our goals based on three themes: Change, Transparency, and Collaboration.

We are also trying to better communicate what AES is and why it plays such an important role in the audio industry. We will focus much more on who our members are and what they want.

The rich and compelling technical programs of both of our U.S. and European conventions continue to be very strong. We should not forget that our technical programs are indeed very successful, and they are one of the reasons why AES is such an important organization within the audio industry. I will do my part to maintain our strong position and to expand our reach and relevance to more people and companies within the industry.

Since our 131st Convention last year in New York, many things have taken place internally within the AES. An extensive search for a new executive director culminated in the hiring of Bob Moses, who started his work on January 1. Our former executive director, Roger Furness, is now serving the AES in a new position as deputy director until the end of 2012. This is a great advantage for the AES that means that we will have a very smooth transition period. All AES members owe Roger Furness a very big thank you, both for successfully leading our society as executive director for 17 years and also for making our current transition so smooth and professional.

We also have a new Journal editor, Bozena Kostek, who has many new ideas for how we can continue to develop the JAES in the future. All AES members also owe a big thank you to our former editor, John Vanderkooy, who did a fantastic job developing the Journal and bringing new initiatives to our publications, such as introducing the engineering briefs at AES conventions.

A number of other committee chairs within the AES have changed. I am very grateful both to the people coming into the new positions and to the outgoing people who have all served the AES with success.

I wish you all success and hope you enjoy your AES membership!