PSMA Update



PSMA website

Click for easy-to-print version on 1 page

PSMA 2014 Annual Meeting Attracts Near Record Attendance

ver 75 PSMA members and guests attended the PSMA Annual Meeting, held at the Omni Fort Worth, in Fort Worth, TX, during APEC 2014.

Some of the attendees at the 2014 PSMA Annual Meeting

The buffet breakfast before the meeting started provided attendees an opportunity for networking and meeting colleagues. Outgoing chairman Carl Blake officially opened the meeting by welcoming all the attendees and asked each to briefly introduce themselves. Among those present were many of the 49 recipients of the APEC Student Travel Support. These awards are provided jointly by IAS, PELS and PSMA and attracted 111 applicants from 54 different schools in 20 countries.

The first item on the agenda was the election of four people to the Board of Directors. The following candidates were elected to the Board of Directors for the three-year term (2014-2017):

	Alain Chapuis		Power-One, A Member of the ABB Group (Regular Member)
	Stephen Oliver		Vicor Corporation (Regular Member) - second term
	Ernie Parker		Crane Electronics Inc, - Power Solutions (Regular Member) - second term
	Eric Persson		International Rectifier Corporation (Associate Member) - second term

Carl Blake, Outgoing Chair, recognized the contributions of Steven Hogge who is leaving the Board as Director and expressed the appreciation of PSMA for his service and continued contributions to the Association.

Carl Blake turns over the gavel to the new Chair Ernie Parker

Carl briefly reviewed some of the major accomplishments for the past two years and reported that the Association is financially sound and has increased membership. Recently we have established a cooperation and partnering relationship with iNEMI on roadmaps for power conversion, energy storage and manufacturing trends. The association also sponsored special projects and workshops, published new reports and continues to offer reprints of out of print classic books.

Carl introduced Ernie Parker as the new Chairman for the term 2014-2016 and also introduced the new Executive Officers who will serve for the next two years:

	President		Eric Persson
	Vice President		Stephen Oliver
	Secretary/Treasurer		Michel Grenon

Ernie Parker discussed his vision for the Association going forward and encouraged all members to pick one or two of the Technical Committees and to participate in their activities as the best way for people to increase the benefits of membership. He reviewed the membership statistics for the past year and noted that the Association added 21 new member companies, but lost 12 for a net gain of 9 new member companies.

Following his report, Ernie presented plaques to the following members who have made significant contributions to the Association in the past years who were recognized for their outstanding achievements:

	Carl Blake		In appreciation of his leadership the past two years as Chairman, his contributions to the Power Technology Roadmap projects and his efforts to revitalize the PSMA Semiconductor Technical Committee.
	Jim Marinos		In recognition of his contributions on the Board of Directors the past 6 years, including serving two 2-year terms on the Executive Committee.
	Brian Narveson		In recognition of his service on the Board and as co-chair of the PSMA Packaging Committee since 2006. His leadership helped spawn the Transportation Power Technical Committee in 2013 and was instrumental in the special project on PSIP/PSOC. Brian also co-chaired the special project on 3D Packaging for Power and will present the results in the Plenary Session during APEC 2014.

Following the Chairman's Report was a financial Report presented by Michel Grenon. There were also individual reports from each of the PSMA Technical Committees and reports on the recent Energy Efficiency workshop and the upcoming PwrSoC workshop.

Haidong Yu, General Chair for APEC 2014, provided an update on the overall conference and progress for APEC 2014. The conference will approach the record levels set at APEC 2013 in numbers of paper submissions, numbers of paper acceptances, registrations and attendees. APEC 2014 has set a new record for exhibit booths. The conference appears to be headed to be both a technical and financial success. Aung Thet Tu is the General Chair of APEC 2015 and he discussed that the conference will be held in the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, NC March 15 - 19, 2015.

APEC 2014 General Chair Haidong Yu

Dr. Mark Dehong Xu, President of CPSS

The invited speaker at this year's Annual Meeting was Dr. and Prof Mark Dehong Xu, President of the China Power Supply Society (CPSS). He provided an overview of CPSS, its vision, mission and organization. CPSS was founded in 1983 as a national society and currently has more than 3,000 individual members and 520 company members. It is a very active society and organizes a number of conferences, exhibitions, web sites and education and training programs. At the conclusion of his presentation, Dr. Mark Dehong Xu proposed a number of specific areas of possible areas of cooperation between CPSS and PSMA in the near and longer term.

The minutes from the PSMA Annual Meeting have been posted in the Members Only area of the PSMA web site together with the charts from all of the presentations.

The Annual Meeting, PSMA Committee meetings, as well as the technical sessions, seminars, Industry Presentations, exhibits and other events kept PSMA members busy all the week. The APEC banquet, held at AT&T Stadium, gave everyone a chance to relax and enjoy themselves.

Carl and Dottie Blake relaxing at the APEC Sponsors Dinner

Don and Melony Woodard also enjoyed attending
the APEC Sponsors Dinner

Lucie and Arnold Alderman enjoying themselves at the APEC Sponsors Dinner

Judy & Joe Horzepa watch themselves and others appear on the Jumbotron at AT&T Stadium

There were a record number of exhibitors at APEC 2014. Many PSMA member companies who exhibited at APEC 2014 participated in a "Passport" game in which attendees visited their booths and had their passport booklets stamped. Attendees turned in their completed passports for a chance to win an iPod mini. Traffic to members' booths was brisk and the lucky winner was very happy with his prize.

The lucky winner of an iPod mini claims his prize

<<-Contents | <-Previous | Page 2 | Next->

If you or anyone in your company is interested in getting on the distribution list for future issues of PSMA UPDATE, please send e-mail to: power@psma.com. Be sure to include your name and the name of your company.