Executive Director of EIMA Steve Klamke has announced his departure from the position, which became effective on Dec. 31, 2008, according to a press release issued by the association’s President David Boivin.

Klamke became executive director for EIMA in 1997. He started during the peak of the class action lawsuits in North Carolina and other states but his experience in the industry carried the association successfully through this period and beyond.

After the association shifted its focus to technical issues, Klamke reorganized and then qualified EIMA as an accredited ANSI standards organization, paving the way for the first comprehensive industry standards. Building on the ANSI standards, he guided the EIMA team that finally achieved the incorporation of EIFS into the IBC and IRC building codes after years of effort.

Klamke was proactive in defending the industry nationwide in the press, with the construction industry and in locales such as New York, Virginia, Oregon, Chicago and most recently Las Vegas.