Genelec has appointed Siamäk Naghian to the position of managing director and Nick Zacharov to the position of director of research and development. The announcement was made by Ilpo Martikainen, chairman of the board of Genelec.
Naghian received his Master of Science in Technology, Licentiate in Technology and Doctor of Science in Technology degrees from 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 came to Genelec in 2005 as head of Genelec R&D and a member of the Genelec management team, and was appointed executive vice president in 2010, before moving into his new position.
“One of the most delighting aspects with Siamäk is sharing the same values in human life and corporate management,” states Martikainen. “In addition to being systematic and goal-oriented, he is very inspiring and has a great sense of humor. We are sure the good cooperation with our partners will continue and find even new dimensions.”
“Genelec is a unique company whose image symbolizes quality and trust to customers,” says Naghian. “It will be a great pleasure to take on this new role, and I’m looking forward to the challenge. My main goal is to continue to grow the happy Genelec customer base around the world. I am proud to know we are making a positive difference that matters to our customers.”
The outgoing managing director, Veikko Hyvönen, notes 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.”
New director of R&D Zacharov is rejoining Genelec following 16 years working in various portions of the audio and telecommunications industries
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, by which time he had become widely recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities in the specialist field of audio quality assessment.
Thereafter, he joined DELTA in Denmark for three years to establish and develop DELTA SenseLab, designed to provide world class listening tests and sensory evaluation services to both 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 AES, serving as chairperson, co-chairman of conferences and AES governor.
He has also held numerous other professional posts, and also holds several audio patents and has more than 60 major publications to his name. Zacharov is also co-author of Perceptual Audio Evaluation – theory, method and application, which is the acknowledged textbook in this field.
