In the late '40s Walter Selsted served as a consultant at Ampex Corporation where he assisted in the decision to manufacture magnetic tape recorders, which brought about the original Ampex designs. He joined Ampex in 1949 and worked on the groundbreaking Model 200, America's first pro tape recorder. He was made chief engineer in 1951, then moved on to Director of Research, and later V.P. Engineering in 1960. After his Ampex years Mr. Selsted was hired by Bill Hewlett to manage a new magnetic tape recorder product group at HP. He holds many patents basic to the magnetic recording industry and is a founder of the AES San Francisco Section. An AES Fellow, Mr. Selsted has written numerous technical papers for presentation at professional groups.