Three Industry Leaders Receive IPC President’s Award

In recognition of their leadership and their significant contributions of time and talent to IPC and the electronics manufacturing industry, three IPC volunteers were presented with the IPC President’s Award at IPC APEX EXPO in San Diego, Calif on January 24, 2023. Recipients were Steven Bowles, Lockheed Martin; Stan Rak, SF Rak Company; and Savita Ganjigatti, Sienna ECAD Technologies Private Limited.                                                                                                      

Steven Bowles is a member of more than 30 standards development committees, holding leadership roles as Chair of 3-10 Printed Board Base Materials, D-13 Flexible Circuits Base Materials, D-15 Flexible Circuits Test Methods, and D-11 Flexible Circuits Design. He is the Chair Emeritus of 2-30 Terms and Definitions Committee. Bowles is also a member of the Committee Chairman’s Council and a Lifetime Member of IPC’s Technical Activities Executive Committee (TAEC). He is a member of the Lead-Free Electronics Risk Management, (PERM) Council, a Mentor in IPC’s Emerging Engineer Program, and was the very first recipient of IPC’s Rising Star Award in 2015. Winner of many committee leadership and committee service awards, Bowles also serves as an IPC standards committee A-Team leader.                                             

Stan Rak is the chair of the IPC APEX EXPO 2023 Technical Program Committee (TPC) where he has served for six Technical Conferences in different roles, working closely with IPC staff and industry experts on program development.  Developments include the expansion and strengthening of the TPC, the introduction of Special Sessions designed to stimulate audience participation in emerging fields and assisting with the transition to a digital document format for improved communications with authors.  Rak has contributed to the inaugural releases of the standards, IPC-5262, IPC J-STD-001GA/IPC-A-610GA, and IPC-7093. He received the IPC Rising Star Award in 2016 for IPC-related contributions to the automotive electronics manufacturing industry.                                                                                                                 

Savita Ganjigatti has been involved in the industry for more than 30 years and served as a steering committee member for the IPC 2022 Global Design Competition, representing the Asia Pacific region. A program panel member of the IPC Global Thought Leadership Program, she also serves on the IPC India Technical Advisory Committee, was instrumental in starting the PCB competition in that region and conducted many design contests. Ganjigatti was a critical in the development of the Women in India Electronics group, paper presentations, and standards reviews facilitated by IPC India. She helped to implement “PCB Design Engineering” as an elective at several Indian universities, and she is actively involved in skill development initiatives of the Indian central government.

“The leadership and expertise of Steven, Stan, and Savita sets the standard for building electronics better,” said John W. Mitchell, IPC president and CEO. “By presenting them with IPC President’s Awards, we are showing our appreciation for their significant contributions to IPC and the global electronics manufacturing industry.”