SPEAKER BIOS
Kristen Aguiar has been designing circuit boards for over 15 years, including a wide variety of applications such as high power, high density, and high-speed designs. She currently works for Altium as a certified trainer and content developer. She has an IPC CID+ certification.
Daniel Beeker is technical director at NXP Semiconductor, where he provides applications support and special function development tools and instrumentation for NXP Automotive customers worldwide. He has more than 43 years’ experience in electronics system design and EMC. He also specializes in EMC and signal integrity design techniques for systems and PCBs. He has completed more than 200 PCB design evaluations for customers and internal NXP products. He teaches field-based design techniques at NXP and industry conferences worldwide, more than 100 sessions with more than 5,000 attendees since 2010. He is also involved with NXP IC package design and IC development tool teams to support improved EMC performance, working on more than 20 IC designs. His unique approach to EMC is the result of many years of collaboration with one of the fathers of the industry, Ralph Morrison.
Karen Burnham has worked in and around the aerospace, defense, automotive, and broader consulting world since 1996. She has a bachelor’s in physics, a master’s in electrical engineering, and a talent for translating EMC to English. She has managed requirements and test planning for NASA and the Dream Chaser spaceship and others. She has done troubleshooting on electric vehicles for Ford Motor Co. and others. She sits on multiple international standards committees, landing her in her current role of VP of Standards for the IEEE EMC Society. Burnham founded EMC United, Inc. in 2024 to focus on helping companies and hardware designers solve EMC problems, ideally before they start. She believes that, far from being black magic, EMC can be understandable (and even fun!), and she hopes to spread that passion more widely.
Gerry Callahan is a senior embedded systems engineer, with over 30 years of experience designing, programming, and testing electrical circuits and systems. He has a BSEE from the University of Maryland, and has worked in a variety of defense and commercial settings for small and large companies. He also enjoys mountain hiking and zymurgy.
Stephen Chavez is a principal printed circuit engineer with three decades of experience. He is acknowledged throughout the industry as a global subject matter expert (SME) in PCB design. His continued career evolution has elevated him to industry though leadership and as an industry influencer regarding printed circuit engineering. He is currently principal technical product marketing manager with Siemens. He’s an editor/contributor to industry publications and host of the Printed Circuit Podcast. He is a coauthor and instructor of the PCEA Training curriculum and certification (PCEA Certified Printed Circuit Designer, or CPCD).
Tomas Chester, P.Eng., CPCD-I, has over a decade of experience designing hardware products through all phases of its lifecycle. He has managed a variety of multifaceted, interdisciplinary projects, from simple interconnect interfaces to complex microprocessors. His creative designs utilize cutting-edge manufacturing techniques, while adhering to strict industry standards and specifications. Tomas has extensive experience designing standalone single-sided circuit boards, as well as multi-board assemblies with mechanical integration. With an engineering systems and computing degree from The University of Guelph, he is now sharing his knowledge by instructing Altium and PCB engineering design courses.
Paul Cooke has more than 35 years’ experience in printed board (PWB) design and manufacturing. He has held senior positions in operations, quality, process engineering and field application engineering at some of the top North American PCB manufacturers. He serves on a number of IPC technical committees and cochairs the task group for IPC-9121, Troubleshooting for Printed Circuit Boards. He is a member of the IPC Technical Program Committee. He has coauthored numerous technical papers and works with Tier 1 designers in the avionics and space industry to design and develop products that need to have extended life, focusing on PCB design and reliability. Cooke has provided design for manufacture (DfM) consulting services to the industry along with extensive training/educational presentations from PCB 101 through enhanced reliability. He is also the team leader on a number of HDPUG projects and a member of numerous projects.
Chuck Corley is one of the industry’s foremost high-speed digital design and signal integrity experts. He was nicknamed “MacGyver” for his ability to solve complex technical problems when others had failed. Corley helped design many of the industry’s leading products that pushed up to the “bleeding edge” of the highest clock speeds and complexity. His designs include core Internet networking and telecom transport hardware, WIFI technology, cellular 2G/3G/4G/5G technology, phased array radar, automotive radar, satellite communications, microwave instrumentation, and more. In addition to design work, over the past 40 years Corley has taught engineering classes at universities and private companies to help new and experienced engineers reach the cutting edge of high-speed digital circuit design, signal integrity, PCB design, design for manufacturing and design for reliability.
Terrie Duffy is a senior printed circuit board designer at McCauley Design Group, and an adjunct professor at Austin Community College. She has a bachelor’s in computer science from Texas A&M.
Karen Ebner is a principal mechanical engineer and Lead-Free Tin Whisker TIG Co-Chair at Raytheon. She is a senior engineering leader with a proven track record of developing and executing against comprehensive project plans while actively managing project risk. Her well-rounded technical background includes complex electronics and a strong ability to facilitate and coordinate diverse groups across multiple functions and suppliers.
Rick Hartley retired from L-3 Avionics, is the principal of RHartley Enterprises, through which he consults and teaches internationally. Hartley’s focus is on correct design of circuits and PCBs to prevent and/or resolve EMI, noise and signal integrity problems. He has consulted with major corporations in the US and 14 other countries. His career has focused on telecommunications, computers and aircraft avionics, as well as medical, appliance and automotive circuits. Hartley has taught seminars at numerous conferences, including PCB East and PCB West, IEEE EMC Symposium, AltiumLive, Freescale Technology Forum, IPC Apex/Expo and others. He is on the board of directors of the Circuit Engineering Association, is a past member of the editorial review board of Printed Circuit Design magazine and has written numerous technical papers and articles on methods to control noise, EMI and signal integrity.
Keith Kowal has been vice president of engineering at two startup companies including AT/Comm, a predecessor to EZPass, and at Ergo Computing, which developed a portable desktop PC as well as the first docking station. He was also part of a startup developing videoconferencing equipment, now called Polycom. He has experience at several medical companies, including Philips. He has published technical articles in PCB Design and has been a presenter at many technical conferences. He currently owns an electronics design consulting service and works for Applied Materials. He has taught at MIT as an electronic technical instructor, and holds a master’s from Boston University in computer engineering.
Matthew Leary has been a PCB designer for 28 years. He currently runs a 40 person, Boston-based service bureau that supports hardware development across many industries including medical and life science, consumer products, robotics, defense, automotive, and research.
Mike Marshall is a field applications engineer at NCAB Group USA in the North Central regional office. He has 40 years of experience in the PCB industry. His career began with PCB manufacturing processes and development including process engineering, equipment development, plating processes engineering, photoimaging techniques, and NC-drill/route programing. Later in his career, he went on to develop experience in PCB assembly and electromechanical assembly operations in QA management before joining NCAB Group in 2019.
Ryan Miller started as a field application engineer at NCAB Group in 2022. He is now a FAE with a primary focus on medical PCBs and PCB design. Miller began his PCB career in 2012 at a factory where he gained experience in manufacturing PCBs, DfM analysis, and stackup and impedance design. He graduated from DeVry University with a bachelor’s in electronics engineering technology.
Charlene McCauley has over 43 years’ experience as a PCB and mechanical designer, 22 as the founder and manager of two design service bureaus. For the past 14 years, she has led McCauley Design Group, where she has served 50+ customers in the server, semiconductor, space, military aircraft, radar, satellite, medical, simulator, oil field industries. She has eight years’ experience as an adjunct professor at Austin Community College teaching PCB design, electrical/electronic design, and technical drafting. She was employed at Dell for nine years as a senior PCB designer for the rack, tower, blade server, and storage systems, and now provides design services for Dell’s Precision laptop and server systems. She also provides Allegro/OrCAD training for her customers’ engineering departments.
Zachariah Peterson has an extensive technical background in academia and industry. He currently provides research, design and marketing services to electronics companies. Prior to working in the PCB industry, he taught at Portland State University. His background in scientific research spans topics in nanoparticle lasers, electronic and optoelectronic semiconductor devices, environmental sensors, and stochastics. His work has been published in over a dozen peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and he has written hundreds of technical blogs on PCB design for a number of companies. He is a member of IEEE Photonics Society, IEEE Electronics Packaging Society, American Physical Society, and the Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA). He previously served as a voting member on the INCITS Quantum Computing Technical Advisory Committee and he currently serves on the IEEE P3186 Working Group.
Ethan Pierce is the founder of Dodec Labs. An electrical engineer by trade, he has spent his career building consumer, medical, and defense connected products at leading companies from Apple to leading IoT companies Blues Wireless and Particle. His specialty is maintaining holistic design intent from concept to mass production, producing high performance hardware designs.
Adam Taylor is a world-recognized expert in design and development of embedded systems and FPGAs. Throughout his career, he has used FPGAs to implement a wide variety of solutions from RADAR to safety critical control systems (SIL4) and satellite systems. He also had interesting stops in image processing and cryptography along the way.
Taylor is a Chartered Engineer, Senior Member of the IEEE, Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, Arm Innovator, and Edge Impulse Ambassador. He is owner of the engineering and consultancy company Adiuvo Engineering and Training, which develops embedded solutions for high reliability, mission critical and space applications. Current projects include ESA Plato, and Lunar Gateway along with several other clients across the world.
FPGAs are Taylor’s first love, and he has authored numerous articles and papers on electronics design and FPGA design including over 500 blogs, amassing over 30 million views.
Syed Ubaid Ali Warsi is a seasoned IPC CID senior PCB designer with 20 years of diverse experience, His journey encompasses guiding boards from the initial design phase through prototyping, board bring-up, EMC compliance, and finally to full-scale production. Specializing in high-speed PCB design and EMC compliance, he navigates cutting-edge technologies like Intel’s Agilex and Stratix series, PCIe Gen3/4, 56Gbps PAM4, and 28Gbps NRZ interfaces. A notable HDI technology expert, Syed contributes to breakthroughs in 0.2mm CSP multi-lamination breakout boards. Beyond his individual accomplishments, his mentorship has shaped the next generation of PCB designers. Through his mentorship, several professionals are now thriving at renowned companies like Intel, Xilinx, R&D Altanova, Hitek Systems, among others. As owner of Wavetroniks, his commitment to excellence and innovation drives success in the dynamic field of PCB and hardware design, serving clients across North America.
Lauren Waslick is PCB design director at Newgrange Design. She is also a senior PCB designer with over 12 years of experience. She runs the PCB design department, which includes over 25 designers, and oversees the training program. Working at a service bureau for 12 years has allowed her to gain extensive design experience across many industries including medical, consumer products, defense, aerospace, alternative energy, robotics and more. She specializes in flex design, as well as HDI and high-speed, and has worked on hundreds of circuit board designs in her career. In 2019, she received her MBA from Babson College.
John Watson has a career spanning over 44 years in electronics, with 24 working in the PCB design/engineering field. He has worked with several top companies including Teledyne API, Emerson Computer Power, Legrand Corp., and served in the US Army in the military intelligence field. Most recently, he was a technical expert with Altium, where he trained and mentored new customers on Altium tools and the PCB process, working alongside companies to better their proficiency with ECAD tools and the overall quality of the PCB design process. He is a college professor at Palomar San Marcos, teaching basic and advanced PCB design. He is a highly sought-after author and writer for various blogs and white papers and author of two library and data management books.
Susy Webb is a senior PCB design engineer with over 45 years of experience. Her career includes experience in coastal and oceanographic oil exploration and monitoring equipment, point-to-point microwave network systems, and CPCI and ATX computer motherboards. Webb is a regular speaker at PCB Conferences, IPC events, international design conferences, and has consulted to individual companies and groups for the last 20 years. Her presentations discuss practical implementation of complex engineering concepts into board layout, and methods to improve the overall design and flow of printed circuit boards. She is CID certified, a former writer/columnist for Printed Circuit Design and Fab magazine, a chapter writer for Clyde Coombs Printed Circuits Handbook, an authors of the PCEA Training Printed Circuit Engineering Professional handbook and curriculum, and a former judge for the annual TLA competition. Webb is also an active member of the PCEA Executive Board and Education committees.
Todd Westerhoff is a product marketing manager for high-speed system design in the Electronic Board Systems division of Siemens EDA. He has over 40 years of experience in electronic system modeling and simulation, including over 25 years of signal integrity experience. Westerhoff was heavily involved with the IBIS-AMI modeling specification during its inception. Prior to joining Siemens EDA, he held senior technical and management positions at SiSoft, Cisco and Cadence. He also worked as an independent signal integrity consultant developing analysis methodologies for major systems and IC manufacturers. Westerhoff holds a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology.
