Corning Inc. announced that James R. Houghton will step down as non-executive chairman of the board at the company’s annual shareholders meeting on April 26, 2007. He will continue serving as a board member. Company CEO Wendell P. Weeks has been named board chairman; Peter F. Volanakis will assume the role of president along with his responsibilities as COO. Both appointments will take effect at the April meeting. Houghton served Corning for more than 38 years, first retiring from the company in 1996. He returned as non-executive chairman in June 2001 and was also named CEO in April 2002. He relinquished the CEO role in April 2005, at which time Weeks was named president and CEO and Volanakis COO. In May 2006, Houghton retired as an employee of the company for the second time but retained the role of non-executive chairman. Weeks joined Corning in 1983 and has served in various executive positions, including division vice president (later general manager) of Telecommunications Products, senior vice president of Opto-Electronics and president of Optical Communications. He has been Corning president and CEO since April 2005. Volanakis joined Corning in 1982 as a market development specialist in the company’s Optical Products Div. He has also served as general manager, Europe for the Environmental Products Div., executive vice president of Siecor Corp. (a Siemens-Corning equity venture) and senior vice president, Advanced Display Products. He was named president of Corning Technologies in Jan. 2001 and in April 2005 became the company's COO.