Gary Gottlieb has taken on the role of Audio Engineering Society President.

An AES Member for 40 years, Gottlieb has been deeply engaged in various levels of leadership in the organisation for the past 20. ‘Gary Gottlieb has an amazing history of service to the AES,’ says AES immediate Past President Leslie Gaston-Bird.

‘When we first met, he was a leader in the St Louis Section and mentoring the Webster University Student Section, who jointly established the wildly successful Central Regional Audio Student Summit series. He has contributed hugely to AES’s educational, historical and event initiatives and it’s been my pleasure to work with him on the AES Board of Directors this past year.

‘AES will no doubt thrive under his leadership and continue to build on our forward progress. I’m eager to see Gary’s boundless enthusiasm and dedication in action as he leads the Society for the coming year.’

Gottlieb is enthusiastic about the line-up of AES events in 2025, with three conventions and three conferences confirmed, and work has already begun on creating a slate of events for 2026 and 2027. ‘In service to our members and our sponsors we are thinking as far ahead as possible, and also are looking to evolve and adapt our events to better serve all our stakeholders,’ he says. ‘We are a membership organisation, and our members want that sense of community and camaraderie. We want to meet each other, network and connect, and there is no better way to get that sense of belonging than by attending events – locally, regionally and internationally.’

Along with member engagement through events and through cross-pollination between student and professional sections, Gottlieb is focused on ensuring that technology is in place to give members the best possible experience regarding all of the Society’s digital assets, including the E-library, the AES Live: Videos archive, and the Oral History Project.

‘We have a wealth of valuable information about the audio industry, workflows and methods, and how the industry and AES evolved over the last 77 years,’ says Gottlieb. ‘We are working behind the scenes to make all those assets available to members in an organised and intuitive interface.’

An AES Fellow, Gottlieb attended AES Conventions starting in 1983 in New York, where he began his career as an assistant engineer at Counterpoint Studios. He moved on to National Edison Studios before going freelance in some of the most storied studios in New York, including A&R, Sigma Sound, The Hit Factory and Clinton Recording. By the early 1990s, Gottlieb expanded his career to Sound Design and Sound Reinforcement. In 1991 he relocated to Vermont where he earned his master’s degree in Audio Aesthetics & Technology from Marlboro College.

In the early 2000s Gottlieb moved to St Louis, where he ran and revamped Webster University’s Audio Program, expanding it to become the school’s Department of Audio Aesthetics & Technology. While in St Louis he revitalised the St. Louis AES Section, which had lain dormant for 13 years, and helped students form the Webster University AES Student Section. Their Student Summit was a watershed event for the Central Region and the University.

During his time in St Louis, he authored three books: Shaping Sound in the Studio & Beyond, Recording on the Go, and How Does It Sound Now? – Legendary Engineers and Vintage Gear. Second Editions of Shaping Sound and How Does It Sound Now? are due to be released in 2025.

Along with holding every local AES Section office possible, Gottlieb served two-year terms on the Society’s Board of Governors, first as a Governor then later as Regional Vice President for the Eastern Region of US and Canada, and is now on the Board of Directors. He has served in leadership roles on the Historical Committee, the Conference Committee, and the Events Coordination Committee. ‘AES is a volunteer organisation,’ Gottlieb says. ‘Our strength is in our ability to support the organisation by volunteering. I encourage all members to pitch in to help build a stronger community, whether it’s on the local level, regionally or internationally’.

‘It’s an exciting time to lead AES,’ says Gottlieb, ‘We are constantly evolving, and I am ready to do my part to continue this evolution, with a goal to bring many of the initiatives started in the last few years to fruition.’