IPC Introduces New Committee Leader and Committee Volunteer Awards at IPC APEX EXPO 2023

Bob Cooke, Michael Ford, and Christina Rutherford take top honors

In keeping with its commitment to showing appreciation for its strong volunteer community, IPC introduced two new awards in IPC standards development at IPC APEX EXPO 2023. The awards, Committee Leader of the Year and Volunteer of the Year, were named in honor of key leaders and volunteers from IPC standards development efforts. The Hillman-Lambert Award, named for IPC Hall of Famers and longtime standards committee volunteers David Hillman and Leo Lambert, is awarded to volunteers of the year. The Goldman-Kessler Award, named for IPC Hall of Famers, and longtime committee leaders, Patty Goldman and Bernie Kessler, is awarded to leaders of the year.

Nominations for the 2023 awards were open to all volunteers and leaders whose groups had completed their standards projects between October 2021 and October 2022.  The awards were peer-selected, and a nomination committee was formed to review and judge all nomination packets.

The Hillman-Lambert Award was presented to Michael Ford, Aegis Software, and Christina Rutherford, Honeywell International, as the result of a tie vote. Ford received his nomination for his work with the 2-12c Cybersecurity Protection Standard Task Group. Rutherford was nominated for her work with the 7-31f IPC/WHMA-A-620 Task Group.

 The Goldman-Kessler Award was presented to Bob Cooke, NASA Johnson Space Center. Cooke was nominated for his leadership of the 7-31k Wire Harness Design Task Group and the 5-24g Polymerics Standard Task Group.

In addition to Ford and Rutherford, nominees for the Hillman-Lambert Award included Erika Crandall, TE Connectivity; Hermann Eicher, EPT Guglhoer GmbH; Joseph Kane, BAE Systems; Garry McGuire, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center; Zhiqian Sang, Hangzhou Dianzi University; and Wei Wang, New HC3 Technologies Co., Ltd.

In addition to Cooke, nominees for the Goldman-Kessler Award were: Scott Bowles, Lockheed Martin; Constantino Gonzalez, Acme Training and Consulting; Thomas Marktscheffel, ASMPT GmbH & Co. KG; and Victor Xu, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

“Volunteerism is the bedrock of our standards development activities,” said Teresa Rowe, IPC senior director, assembly and standards technology. “The new standards development committee awards program is entirely volunteer-driven, created to recognize the best-of-the-best in our standards development activities.”

Committee Leader and Volunteer of the Year awards will be presented on an annual basis, with next presentation taking place at IPC APEX EXPO 2024 in Anaheim, Calif. For more information on the awards, contact Rowe at TeresaRowe@ipc.org.