Feb 19, 2013
In recognition of their extraordinary contributions to IPC and the electronic interconnect industry, Ray Prasad,
Ray Prasad Consultancy Group and Lionel Fullwood, WKK Distribution Ltd., were honored with the IPC Raymond E. Pritchard Hall of Fame Award. Presented today at IPC APEX EXPO in San Diego, the Hall of Fame Award represents IPC’s highest level of volunteer recognition.
Ray Prasad started working with IPC in 1981, when he first presented a paper on hand soldering at an IPC event. Right from the start, Prasad found a close link between his IPC efforts and success at Boeing, where he worked at the time. Prasad was already a regular attendee at IPC meetings by 1985, when IPC staff member, Dieter Bergman tapped him to become chair of the land pattern committee. By then, Prasad worked at Intel, having received “an offer he couldn’t refuse” to start their SMT program.
His IPC efforts morphed into setting up the SMT Round Table, then the Surface Mount and Reflow Technology (SMART) conference. In addition, his experience with ball grid arrays, chip scale packaging technology and design for manufacturing made him a perfect leader for the 5-21 Ball Grid Array Task Group and co-chair of the 5-21h Bottom Termination Components Task Group.
Since the early 90s, Prasad has worked as a consultant. For much of the success Ray has logged throughout his career, he credits his involvement with IPC in helping him achieve it. In turn, IPC credits some of its success to him.
Lionel Fullwood embarked on his long-standing relationship with IPC back in 1964 shortly after he joined the Autonetics Division of what was then North American Aviation. As a young engineer, Fullwood was sent to an IPC meeting as a reward for good work he’d done. He enjoyed that meeting, learned a lot, and kept returning for more.
Fullwood has continually balanced work and IPC activities. Some of his early efforts to help IPC build the industry’s infrastructure laid the groundwork for many years of continued advances. He helped steer the publication of the IPC Guide for Microvia Formation in the late ‘90s. This guide had been the basis of major technical developments within industry.
In IPC meetings, Fullwood, a native of Liverpool, England, brings both a sense of humor and attention to detail. The latter has earned him the nickname of “Mr. English.” Many meetings have been prolonged as he makes his case for using precise wording in an attempt to eliminate misunderstandings. Currently, Lionel is the technical director for WKK Distribution Ltd. in Hong Kong and has been working in Asia since 1982. In addition to his title of “Mr. English,” Lionel also earned the name “Mr. Asia” for championing the needs of the developing interconnect industry there.
For more information on the IPC Hall of Fame awards presented at IPC APEX EXPO, contact Anna Garrido, IPC director or marketing and communications at +1 847-597-2804.
IPC (www.IPC.org) is a global industry association based in Bannockburn, Ill., dedicated to the competitive excellence and financial success of its 3,300 member companies which represent all facets of the electronics industry, including design, printed board manufacturing, electronics assembly and test. As a member-driven organization and leading source for industry standards, training, market research and public policy advocacy, IPC supports programs to meet the needs of an estimated $2.17 trillion global electronics industry. IPC maintains additional offices in Taos, N.M.; Arlington, Va.; Stockholm, Sweden; Moscow, Russia; Bangalore, India; Bangkok, Thailand; and Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou and Beijing, China.
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