Hawai‘i Public Radio President and General Manager Michael Titterton will step down at the end of June and a nationwide search is underway to find a successor.

The stations announced Titterton’s planned departure today.

“HPR has been a large part of my life for over a decade and a half now, and will be a part of me always,” Titterton wrote in a message to members. “These years have been high among the most rewarding of my life.”

He has “no immediate professional plans following my departure, I feel strongly that it is time for me to move on,” he said.

London-born Titterton joined HPR as president and general manager in 1999, after working in North Carolina.

At the time he joined the Hawaii stations, the nonprofit had four transmitters, an annual operating budget of $1.6 million, and about 7,000 members who donated about 43 percent of station funding. HPR now has 13 frequencies across the state, a budget of $4.8 million and 13,000 members who contribute about 65 percent of the budget.

Finding Titterton’s successor “will be one of the biggest challenges that HPR has faced,” said Dr. Tyrie Jenkins, president of the stations’ board of directors. “We will miss his day-to-day presence, but are sure his vision will remain intrinsic to HPR.”