Longtime civic leader Arnold Perl is resigning from the board of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, the Memphis Business Journal reported.

Perl has been chairman of the board since 1996.

He will abandon the remainder of his latest five-year term, which lasts through 2016.

Perl has served on the airport board for more than 30 years and has served as chairman for 16.

A new chairman will be named at the airport authority's next regularly scheduled meeting on Jan. 17.