Speakers

Ryan Benitez is senior electromagnetic compatibility engineer at ElectroMagnetic Investigations Test Laboratory in Hillsboro, Oregon. He has greater than 20 years’ experience in the EMC field.

Alexis Canfield is the Regional Vice President for the Western Region at TTI, Inc. With over 17 years at TTI, Inc., Alexis has held a variety of roles in the Pacific NW, showcasing a proven track record of driving growth. Alexis leads a team of nine TTI branches and collaborates closely with various suppliers and manufacturers’ representatives to ensure mutual success. TTI, Inc. is a specialty distributor of passive, interconnect, electromechanical, and discrete components. TTI, Inc. aims to be the most preferred electronics distributor for customers and suppliers by delivering the right parts exactly on time.

Gary DeGrave is Corporate Director of Supply Chain. He has 30+ Years of Supply Chain Experience. Previous experience includes: Operations Management, International Procurement, Domestic Procurement, Order Fulfillment Management, and Warehouse Management.

Pat Duggan is manufacturer’s Rep at Temco Northwest since 1996. Distribution Manager, Sales Engineer. On the board of directors for the Electronics Representatives Association (ERA) for over 25 years. He has a degree from the University of Washington.

Joseph Fjelstad has been active in electronics manufacturing since 1972 in various roles, including chemist, process engineer, and R&D manager. He holds nearly 190 U.S. Patents and numerous foreign ones. He is an internationally recognized expert, inventor and lecturer in the field of electronics interconnection technology and a veteran of several startup companies, including: Beta Phase, ELF Technologies, MetaRAM, Silicon Pipe, and Tessera (now the public company, Xperi).

Some of Fjelstad’s innovative devices and novel reliability improving IC packaging structural features are found in nearly every electronic device made today. He is also an author, co-author or editor of several books on interconnection technology, including Flexible Circuit Technology 4th Edition, the most widely distributed reference book on the topic, Chip Scale Packaging for Modern Electronics, and Solderless Assembly For Electronics — The SAFE Approach (a book on the Occam Process). In addition, Fjelstad has written hundreds of articles, columns and commentaries for various industry magazines and journals over the last five decades.

Joe has been cited to date over 10,000 times on Google Scholar and is ranked both nationally and international among the best electronics and electrical engineering scientists globally by Research.com 

Jack Frost is Director of Business Development at Cascade Systems Technology. Prior to Cascade, Mr. Frost worked in numerous Sales, Marketing, Engineering and Senior Management roles at MTI, ATS Automation, DW Fritz Automation, Teseda, Credence Systems, IMS, and Intel. Mr. Frost has a BSEE from Cornell University.

Nolan Johnson’s career has focused almost exclusively on electronics design and manufacturing. Trained as a software engineer, Nolan wrote applications for Mentor Graphics. Later, he managed technical training centers for ESI, Tektronix, and Synetics Solutions. Prior to joining I-Connect007, Nolan worked for Sunstone Circuits, in Marketing and as Product Manager for the EDA tool, PCB123. Nolan has also held various technical and leadership positions at Clarity Visual Systems, General Electric, and Planar Systems.

Nolan’s hobbies and interests include guitar and music, sailing, horses, swing dance, and Asian cookery. Having launched his two grown children, Nolan now enjoys sharing his home with his cat, Romeo.

Jim Kaigh is a seasoned sales consultant and Outsourced VP of Sales for Sales Xceleration, with over two decades of commercial leadership experience. He specializes in helping small to medium-sized businesses optimize their sales processes and achieve sustainable growth. Operating most often as a part-time, fractional VP of Sales, Jim builds robust sales infrastructures for his clients through custom-tailored sales strategies, integrated sales processes, sales team development and the implementation of proven tactical execution plans that drive aggressive revenue growth. His extensive hands-on experience makes him a trusted advisor for businesses looking to unlock their full sales potential.

Jerome Larez is the owner & operator of NextGen PCBs. With nearly 30 years in the PCB industry Jerome has developed a comprehensive expertise spanning manufacturing, planning, engineering, sales, and management. For over two decades Jerome has specialized in prototype PCB fabrication collaborating closely with PCB engineers and designers to advance new product development.

Paul Menig is a thought leader on manufacturing, technology, and transportation. His experience since graduating from MIT spans medical, defense, aerospace, industrial automation, automotive, and truck industries.

He was an entrepreneur starting new business and product activities at General Electric, Eaton, and Daimler Truck. As a business accelerant, he helps companies and individuals accelerate their success. He has consulted with several hundred startups, family-owned enterprises, and small-cap public companies.

For the last decade he has spoken at numerous conferences and worked with startups to multinational companies on future products, strategy, and business improvement.

Doug Porter is a Mechanical Design Engineer and since 2006 the President of the highly regarded engineering and product development company designPORT.  Doug has 30 years of experience as a mechanical design engineer and serial entrepreneur.

Doug regularly speaks to industry and community groups on how to start technology companies as well as how to use product development to grow established entities.  By using firsthand examples of medical and consumer product companies Doug has successfully incubated, he is able to quickly help clients and new equity partners succeed.  Their motto: “Propelling Commercially Successful Products to Market” sums up what drives Doug and his highly experienced team.

Doug started his career as design engineer in the aerospace and undersea military arena gaining valuable experience working in some of the most challenging environmental theatres on earth.  Following this he worked for General Electric developing life safety and access control products for the high volume consumer and industrial security industries.  Spending months abroad in factories around the world Doug developed a keen understanding of how to design products for a widely varying clientele and when and how to utilize tooling and manufacturing in different regions.

Currently Doug shares his time between running designPORT and incubating a continuing stream of new companies based on innovative products being developed at their Wilsonville Oregon design studio.  If you are invited for a tour you will be able to see the Novagrade® optical accessory product line.  This new brand demonstrates how Doug’s team is able to quickly achieve international success by utilizing the latest rapid prototyping technologies coupled with social media marketing.

Chris Pulone is a supply chain professional with experience in developing supply chains, cost reduction programs, contract negotiations, in-source/out-sourcing. Use of spend analytics and commodity industry tools for strategy development and execution. He has working knowledge of several MRP systems and sourcing of multiple commodities.

Rob Rowland is the Director of Engineering at Axiom Electronics in Hillsboro, Oregon. He has over 35 years of experience with surface mount manufacturing technology. Rob is the Chair of two IPC task groups: IPC-7530 Guidelines for Temperature Profiling and IPC-7095 Design and Assembly Process Implementation for BGAs. He is a recipient of the SMTA Founders Award and the SMTA Member of Technical Distinction Award. Rob has been a frequent author and speaker at industry events. He received a BS Degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Weber State University.

Mike Schindele has over 40 years’ experience with high technology companies in a leadership role within global operations & supply-chain management. Specific responsibilities included manufacturing operations, manufacturing outsourcing, materials management, logistics, planning, and supply-chain management.  Prior experience with local companies ranges from start-ups to fortune 100 companies including InFocus Systems, FLIR Systems, Solectron, RadiSys, VersaLogic, and most recently Axiom Electronics.

Jerry Vieira is a Certified Management Consultant and President & Founder of The QMP Group, a Portland-based consulting firm specializing in market strategy and marketing and sales organizational effectiveness. QMP has helped clients from Montreal to New Mexico, Seattle to San Diego, and Chicago to Dallas meet the challenges of growth.

Author of three books, Jerry is a cited expert – regularly speaking and writing about market strategy, the adoption of innovation, new business development effectiveness, and sales process improvement. He has addressed a wide range of public, private, educational, and business audiences: National Institute of Science & Technology (NIST) annual conference, Helsinki School for International Trade, Stanford University’s Japan Trade Center, American Electronics Association (Chicago), Portland’s Partnership for Competitiveness, Institute of Management Accountants, Oregon Association of CPAs, Vistage and Excell CEO Executive Forums, the Licensing Executives Society, the Hogan Center for Performance Excellence, KPMG and Price Waterhouse high tech forums, Strategic Planning Institute, Oregon Executive MBA program, Willamette University and the Portland State University MBA and Executive Ed Programs.

His articles on market strategy, sales, management and the economy have appeared in Industry Week, CEO Refresher, Marketing News, The Quality Journal, Business Marketing and Chief Executive Magazine. In addition, Jerry has published two books, “Navigational Selling®” and “The Consultancy Navigator®” – and has a third in editing “Winning Against the Big Ships: Market Strategy for Small to Mid-Size Business-to-Business.”

His varied career included executive and management assignments in engineering, manufacturing, marketing & sales. Jerry has a BS Degree in Electrical Engineering from Manhattan College, a second BS Degree in Music from Portland State University, and an MBA from the University of Rhode Island.

His talks are insightful, inspiring, entertaining, and informative. In the words of one enthusiastic listener, who said…“I learned and was inspired.”

Leonard Weitman provides executive coaching and manufacturing consulting services.  He has managed operations around the US and overseas with titles that included VP Technical Operations, Project Director, Director of Operations, and Manufacturing Manager, at technology companies including Tektronix, Applied Materials, Mentor Graphics, Bend Broadband, ASM International, and Veeco.  In addition to working across the US, his experiences include working and managing in the UK, Ireland, France, India, Egypt, Japan, and China.

Leonard holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Oregon State University and an MS in Engineering Management from Portland State University.  He was named a member of the Oregon State Academy of Distinguished Engineers in 2012 and the Portland State University Academy of Distinguished Alumni in 2019.

Angela Wilhelms is a native Oregonian with more than twenty years of experience in public affairs. As president and CEO of Oregon Business & Industry (OBI), a statewide association that advocates on behalf of businesses of all sizes, from all industries and in all parts of the state, Angela leads a team committed to creating a healthy prosperous and competitive economy in Oregon. OBI’s advocacy, research and political work involves a wide variety of issue areas important to Oregon’s employers and employees.

Prior to her role at OBI, Angela practiced business law at the Portland firm of Dunn Carney, was a senior administrator at the University of Oregon, and spent several years as chief of staff for the House Minority Office and House Co-Speaker’s Office. She also has experience in communications, campaign management, and corporate finance.

Angela loves to travel, is a certified official with USA Track & Field, and serves on the boards for Sport Oregon, the Oregon Business Academy, the Oregon State Capitol Foundation, and CSI Oregon.

Laura serves as Director, IP Counsel for Software and Artificial Intelligence at Thermo Fisher Scientific, joining Thermo Fisher in 2021 after 13 years in private practice.  Laura holds undergraduate degrees in engineering and mathematics from Swarthmore College, master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a law degree from Harvard University.  Laura lives in Portland, Oregon.