Congratulations to Steve Pudles! IPC Hall of Fame 2020 Inductee

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

With over 32 years spent working with IPC, Steve Pudles was elected to the IPC’s Hall of Fame this year. Patty Goldman spoke with Steve about how he first became involved as well as his time in the organization, including his work with the EMS Management Council.

Patty Goldman: Steve, congratulations on your election into IPC’s Hall of Fame. It’s a big deal. Let’s start with a little bit of background about you, how you got involved in the industry, and how you got involved at IPC.

Steve Pudles: I started my career working for two U.S. defense contractors, and in 1985, I made a move to a company in New Jersey that built products for other companies. There was no industry at the time; it was just a business. They had to absorb some of the fixed costs from their other declining businesses. That was my entry into the EMS industry, even though we didn’t create and enable the industry until much later. I went to my first IPC meeting in 1987. I received a call from Tony Hilvers, who, at that time, was the VP of Industry Programs for IPC. He told me about this meeting that was going to take place with a bunch of companies that were in this industry and asked me if I’d be interested in attending, so I went. As they say, the rest is history.

Then, the EMS Management Council started meeting twice a year. Some of the meetings were very moderately attended. There were companies from all over the country, but some of those companies don’t exist anymore, and others have been acquired. It always tended to be small or medium EMS companies.

To read this entire interview, which appeared in Show & Tell Magazine, click here.