Nathan Edwards Takes Helm at USPAE

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The U.S. Partnership for Assured Electronics (USPAE) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the U.S. government has access to resilient and trusted electronics supply chains. USPAE members include companies, academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations from the U.S. and its allies, representing the entire electronics ecosystem from research to design, manufacturing, assembly, and test. I spoke with Nathan Edwards, the USPAE executive director, about his new role.

Nathan, congratulations on your new role as director of USPAE. Can you tell us about your role?

Nathan Edwards: Thank you, Chris. I am attempting to fill some very large shoes created by former executive director Chris Peters. The role of executive director includes a lot of connectivity with our industry members and with the government, but one element that really stands out is setting forth our strategic direction on where we need to go as an organization, with our industry members, and with the government. USPAE is a trusted third party and as I take the leadership helm, I will be able to identify emerging needs or technologies across these organizations, both in government and industry, while working to solve the large problems in the defense electronics sector. 

Share with me a little bit about your background.
I’m a mixed bag of tricks. As you go through your career and life, you continue to discover things about yourself. Years ago, I spent a few years in college studying mechanical engineering. But then the opportunity to serve my community presented itself, and I left school to work as a firefighter and paramedic for nine years. When I returned to school I focused on computer and electrical engineering as I realized that electronic controls were paramount to all other fields. That led to several opportunities in electronics research where I frequently studied questions like, “How are you going to build these things?” It increased my interest in assembly and supply chain issues. Ultimately, one graduate thesis and five patents later, I moved to work in secure technologies of the energy and defense sectors, where I started to understand the broad needs for government.

My technical background in circuit assembly and failure analysis along with a broad knowledge of electronics applications and the defense sector led me to work for USPAE. I bring a broad perspective to the table that I believe will help USPAE members engage in government, understand their needs, and shape technical solution development. It’s been a tremendous adventure from where I started 17 years ago.

What were you doing at USPAE prior to this new role?
In August 2022, I was hired as the director of government development to cross-connect industry and government, develop new projects and programs, and to identify what electronics industry members could execute. One of the key questions for the government is, “What kind of emerging technologies work best to reduce risk?” Some of our member organizations help answer that, and many engagement opportunities have evolved through those conversations. My goal was to establish USPAE as a trusted third party at the program level, and some of those conversations continue in my new role.

To read this entire article, which appeared in IPC Community magazine, click here.