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The Town Crier: IPC's Holiday Gift to Industry - Dieter 2.0

We have all seen business leadership change as time passes. Some leaders have chosen to retire early, like Bill Gates of Microsoft, but some people have left us through death, such as Steve Jobs of Apple.

Both men were the icons, the “face” of their company’s ups and downs. There was a succession plan in place to have a new leader take command, to continue the company’s spirit and quality, but with a new vision. Each of their successors has also had his ups and downs, too, but they are the new face to those that buy and support those products.

And then there was IPC’s Dieter Bergman. Dieter was a caring, giving man to all he met. It did not matter if you agreed with him on every detail of a technology standard or topic; you were in the presence of a man who gave his all for a company and an industry he truly loved.

Dieter was the “face of IPC,” and it is to his empty pedestal that we all cast our gaze. This assembly of the curious is looking for the next icon of IPC’s technology direction. That icon will be known simply as “Dieter 2.0.”

I know that Dieter’s assignments have been spread around within IPC to various people, staffers who may or may not have his SME’s (subject matter expert’s) knowledge or passion. These assignments must be re-codified and reassigned back to the new person, Dieter 2.0. This will allow everyone to sigh with relief. We need a new standard-bearer for the thousands of volunteers who give up months of man-work-hours every year for creating IPC standards for Paul Eisler’s industry.

So, just as a child assembles his Christmas list, I have created a similar wish list of who I believe IPC needs to seek out to be their next IPC representative.Read the full column here.Editor's Note: This column originally appeared in the December 2014 issue of The PCB Design Magazine.