It’s Only Common Sense: Marketing Isn’t Fluff, It’s Ammunition
Driving Innovation: Mechanical and Optical Processes During Rigid-flex Production
The Chemical Connection: Onshoring PCB Production—Daunting but Certainly Possible
IPC President's Award: Barry Matties
April 21, 2025 | Pete Starkey, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
The IPC President’s Award is given to IPC members who have exhibited ongoing leadership in IPC and have made significant contributions of their time and talent to the association and the electronic interconnect industry. Individuals can receive this award only once.
Barry Matties has been a leading global force in publishing content about the electronics industry for nearly 40 years. He began his publishing career as a co-founder of CircuiTree Magazine in 1987, which became the leading printed trade journal serving the PCB industry. After selling CircuiTree in 1999, Barry founded I-Connect007, now the leading online media source for original content related to the electronics manufacturing supply chain. I-Connect007 publishes multiple magazines, newsletters, books, webinars, podcasts, and real-time event coverage.
The following begins an interview between Barry Matties and Pete Starkey, about Barry’s entry into the electronics industry, building a successful business that aligned with his values, and a unique philosophy that has fueled that success.
Leadership That Inspires Change
It's been great to reflect upon the 30-odd years since I bumped into Barry Matties, a long-haired American bloke in a T-shirt and baseball cap, roving around with a camera at productronica in Munich in the 1990s.
It was sometime later that I was privileged to be adopted into his editorial team. As a PCB fabricator, Barry’s publications kept me in touch with industry news and gave me insight into developments and advances in the technology.
In 2022, Barry sold his business, I-Connect007, to IPC and will remain as an executive advisor for several months as he begins to explore other business opportunities.
Pete Starkey: Barry, what motivated you to create and publish a new magazine for the industry back in the 1980s?
Barry Matties: I was probably about 23 or 24 years old, and I realized the only way to create the lifestyle that I wanted for me and my family was to create my own business. I realized I would never achieve it by working for somebody else. I didn't know anything about business, publishing magazines, leadership, or really any other business skill, but the timing was right, and I was driven to learn and succeed.
In 1987, we pioneered desktop publishing and launched CircuiTree Magazine. We were challenging the publishing paradigm, and because we did not know the rules of publishing, it allowed us to compete against much larger magazines in ways they did not expect.
Starkey: Your tagline is “good for the industry.” Why do you believe it matters to promote electronics?
Matties: It's important to have an information source that's good for the industry. Our business strategy is simple: Publish content that people want to share. You can describe that in many ways—relevant, timely, useful, entertaining—whatever resonates with someone. Everyone has a different opinion of what's important to them. We try to bring in a diverse bit of content, but it's always designed to help build electronics better, which turned out great because as, you know, we were acquired by IPC, and that fits really well with I-Connect007.
Continue reading this article in the Spring 2025 issue of IPC Community.
Share on:
Testimonial
"Your magazines are a great platform for people to exchange knowledge. Thank you for the work that you do."
Simon Khesin - Schmoll MaschinenSuggested Items
SEMI Foundation Honors Applied Materials at SEMICON West with 2025 Excellence in Achievement Award for Talent Development
11/04/2025 | SEMIThe SEMI Foundation announced it recognized Applied Materials, Inc. with the Excellence in Achievement Award at SEMICON West 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona, honoring the company’s outstanding leadership and collaboration in building the next generation of semiconductor talent.
Update: Technica USA Begins Exclusive U.S. Distributor for DCT Cleaning Products
11/03/2025 | Technica USATechnica USA is pleased to announce they have begun shipping product for DCT USA, LLC today. Technica recently announced a strategic partnership as the exclusive master distributor of DCT cleaning products in the United States, which became effective November 1, 2025.
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
10/31/2025 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007Last week, the IMPACT conference took place in Taipei, bringing together advanced packaging experts from around the globe to share their knowledge. We’ll be bringing you post-conference coverage over the next few weeks, so look for that in our newsletters, and in the Advanced Electronic Packaging Digest. Other news seemed to have the U.S. at the center of the global discussions. My picks start in Phoenix, where TSMC, NVIDIA, and Amkor are all scrambling to establish new capabilities. There’s nothing like a strong demand signal to cause build-out, and AI chips are doing exactly that.
Real Time with... SMTAI 2025: Navigating Manufacturing Challenges with Akrometrix
11/03/2025 | Real Time with...SMTAIMarcy LaRont and Paul Handler of Aktrometrix share insights from the SMTAI show in Chicago. They address manufacturing challenges, particularly warpage issues, and discuss Akrometrix's solutions. Paul details three optical technologies for measuring warpage and thermal expansion, emphasizing the need for reliability and defect detection in production. The conversation also touches on new industry standards for board warpage, influenced by OEMs.
I-Connect007 Welcomes New Columnist: Leo Lambert, EPTAC
10/30/2025 | I-Connect007I-Connect007 is excited to announce a column by Leo Lambert, an industry veteran with 40 years of experience, an award winner, and technical director at EPTAC. This column, Learning With Leo, will explore the evolution and related challenges of electronics product assembly, especially as it relates to training.