Maureen Droney

Managing Director of the Producers & Engineers Wing and Recording Technology / Recording Academy.

Maureen began her career as an assistant engineer at San Francisco’s legendary Automatt Studios. She engineered on projects for George Benson, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, John Hiatt, Tower of Power, and Santana, among many others, including Santana’s GRAMMY-winning album Blues for Salvador, and along the way accumulated recording and mix credits for two Billboard Top 10 dance records. She has a degree in broadcast communication arts from California State University, San Francisco, and has taught seminars on the theory and practice of audio engineering for companies including ABC Television and Radio, CBS Television, and Deluxe. She has worked in both artist and studio management, and just prior to joining the Recording Academy, was with the Kiva Family of studios and music-related businesses, which included the House of Blues Studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Tenn., and East Iris Studios in Nashville, Tenn. She was also the longtime Los Angeles editor of Mix magazine and is the author of the popular recording textbook Mix Masters, co-author of the audio and music business books The Pensado Papers and Al Schmitt On The Record: The Magic Behind the Music, and a regular contributor to numerous performing arts publications.