Speaker Biographies

Admir Abdurahmanovic is a European mathematician with over twenty years of experience implementing applied cryptographic algorithms and protocols. A native of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Admir now resides in Sweden, where he founded PrimeKey Solutions AB in 2001-2002. Admir has pioneered PrimeKey architecture patterns such as anti-counterfeiting, electronics passports, and now PKlaas for cloud. To independently demonstrate the maturity of PrimeKey solutions, Admir is serving as Program Director for CESCORE, an EU-sponsored project. CESCORE is delivering Common Criteria EAL 4+ certification of PrimeKey’s Security Core and of PrimeKey’s Enterprise Java Beans Certificate Authority (EJBCA).

Gilles Aouizerat is the CEO/President of the independent distributor, PCX Inc., since December 1993. He is a thought leader in the area of Quarantine of non-conforming product and has the oldest program in the industry (over six years old).

Gary Beckstedt serves as World Micro's director of quality, heading the company's Atlanta headquarters quality department. Gary's role requires him to coordinate all quality programs and processes in Atlanta, including ISO standards programs, ESD programs, inspection and counterfeit detection, personnel training, and the U.S. Government's Qualified Suppliers List of Distributors (QSLD) program. Gary joined World Micro in 2002 as a technical buyer, moved on to sales support and then transitioned to the more technical atmosphere of the QA department as an IDEA-ICE-3000 Certified Professional Inspector.  He became World Micro's Electrostatic Discharge coordinator and assumed the role of ISO management representative, and quality manager  prior to his appointment as quality director. He has been in the electronics industry since 1987. An armed forces veteran, Beckstedt received the majority of his formal training in the U.S. Air Force where he worked on RADAR systems to support the Desert Storm and Desert Shield campaigns. His extensive background includes management roles in purchasing, sales, and engineering. Gary was recently elected secretary for the Atlanta chapter of the Surface Mount Technology Association. He has received numerous technical awards and is a speaker at technical seminars, tradeshows, and upon request for businesses around the world. Gary lives with his wife in Acworth, GA,  and has one daughter.

Bill Cardoso, Ph.D., Vis a dynamic executive and researcher with more than 15 years of impressive history driving revolutionary breakthroughs in high-tech industry for worldwide private, governmental, medical, aerospace, and research institutions. His recent government customers include DHS, NIH, NSF, NASA, DOE, ONR, DARPA, Navy, and prime defense and aerospace contractors. Dr. Cardoso founded Creative Electron, Inc. (CEI) in 2008. Dr. Cardoso is also the author of several proposals in response to Broad Agency Announcements and SBIR solicitations. Under his leadership, the Creative Electron team of engineers has created the first fully automated reel-to-reel counterfeit inspection system, and the easy-to-use TruView x-ray inspection systems are adding value to the US supply chain as businesses work to avoid counterfeit components. He serves on the G-19 government group establishing the military spec for counterfeit detection. His innovative conductive adhesives are respected as the low cost solution to the RoHS regulation.

Diganta Das, Ph.D.,(Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, B.Tech, Manufacturing Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology) is a member of the research staff at the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering. His expertise is in reliability, environmental and operational ratings of electronic parts, uprating, electronic part reprocessing, counterfeit electronics, technology trends in the electronic parts and parts selection and management methodologies. He performs benchmarking processes and organizations of electronics companies for parts selection and management and reliability practices. Dr. Das has published more than 50 articles on these subjects, and presented his research at international conferences and workshops. He had been the technical editor for two IEEE standards and is vice chairman of IEEE Reliability Society Standard Board coordinating two additional standards. He is an editorial board member for the journal Microelectronics Reliability and Circuit World. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt and a member of IEEE and IMAPS.

Keith Gregory practices in the areas of general business matters, corporate, franchise and partnership disputes, and intellectual property and commercial litigation. He is an experienced litigator, with considerable background in intellectual property issues, licensing agreements, trade secret matters and Uniform Commercial Code issues, especially within the electronic components and semi-conductor industries. Keith was recently appointed to the SAE International AS6081 Committee, established to develop standards proscribing counterfeit parts avoidance requirements for independent distributors.

Robb Hammond is the President and CEO of American Electronic Resource, Inc.  He established the company in 1994 with the goal of bringing professionalism to the Independent Electronic Component Distribution industry.  His interest and passion in battling the proliferation of counterfeits has led him to take a significant role in leading the industry towards safe practices.  Robb’s company is a founding member of IDEA, a previous member of ERAI’s counterfeit committee, and an active participant of the G19 committee, which developed SAE’s AS5553 and AS6081 documents on Counterfeit Electronic Components; Avoidance, Detection, Mitigation, and Disposition. He has previously spoken at NASA’s supplier conferences, the UK’s Component Obsolescence Group conference, DMSMS conferences, and CTI’s Components Obsolescence Workshops. 

Erik Jordan is the National Sales Manager for Nisene Technology Group.  He specializes in equipping labs with automated decapsulation equipment for Failure Analysis as well as counterfeit detection.  Some of his current customers include Department of Defense, Raytheon, NASA, AMD, Freescale, and Intel.  He is skilled on the applications of decapsulation for different package types.  He has presented numerous times on counterfeit detection for integrated circuits.  Erik Jordan is the head chair for the G19 decapsulation committee and has worked on SAE-AS6081 as well as SAE-AS6171.

Marty Lanning has spent over thirty years servicing the needs of Military and Aerospace customers. Marty founded XTREME Semiconductor in 2004 to serve the unique needs of military and aerospace customers, who require trailing edge technology and obsolete product support. Marty began seeing the negative financial and safety impacts counterfeit semiconductor products were having on the industry. He and XTREME Semiconductor then developed a cost effective solution to mitigate the risks associated with purchasing counterfeit semiconductor products. Marty is a prominent participant in industry efforts to combat the influx of counterfeit semiconductor product. He presents on this subject at industry conferences and is a member of numerous industry committees and groups related to the influx of counterfeit semiconductor product in the supply chain. Prior to XTREME Semiconductor, Marty held various management positions at Maxwell Technologies, Austin Semiconductor, General Semiconductor, Motorola and Fairchild Semiconductor. Marty holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business from San Diego State University.

Denise S. Lingenfelter has joined Channel One as the VP Business Consulting and Business Development. With over 25 years in Military and Commercial Supply Chain and Operations Management, her early positions were at Honeywell in Materials Management, then moving into the Military EMS environment as the Honeywell Division Materials Manager for all military programs at both Honeywell Center of Excellence in Tampa, Florida and finally as Materials Manager Military Avionics at SCI in Huntsville.  The past twelve years were spent in electronic component distribution at Future Electronics within the supply chain and logistics area, progressing thru to VP of Global Supply Chain. While at Future Electronics, Denise offered consulting to over 300 international companies in the areas of regarding materials management, designing for the supply chain, materials management within the life cycle of the product in conjunction with lean manufacturing initiative’s. Denise is certified in Lean Manufacturing via the Mississippi State School of Business and has guided many organizations thru the process of designing, implementing and measuring the Total Cost of Acquisition and Total Cost of Ownership of these initiatives.

Mark Marshall has degree in Electrical Engineering and has been working in the field of electronic component evaluation for over 25 years. He has expertise in the evaluation, testing and qualification of Integrated Circuits. He has extensive experience in Integrated Circuit component management and played a key role in setting supplier strategies for NCR, AT&T and Lucent.  Over the past six years Mark has been on the forefront of the counterfeiting issue, working with the electronics industry to manage the associated risks.  He has provided leadership to sub committees working on new counterfeit avoidance standards including the IDEA 1010B and the G19 SAE AS6171.  Mark currently is the Vice President of Engineering at Integra Technologies the leading components testing lab in the United States.  Mark is responsible for the engineering development group with expertise in many fields of component test including microprocessors, memories, ASIC’s, RF and mixed signal as well as expertise in qualification and environmental stressing of components.

Janice Meraglia is Vice President of Military and Government Programs.  She joined Applied DNA Sciences almost three years ago at which point she began meeting with various government agencies and industry associations to discuss the anti-counterfeiting potential of our DNA marking application for electronics.  Her focus has been to demonstrate the ease, flexibility and power of this solution as a means by which absolute, forensic authentication of originality can be determined at any and all points in the supply chain.  In addition to working with scientists who hold PhDs in various biological and chemical disciplines, she has colleagues in sales with backgrounds in the electronics industry.  Together their team represents a comprehensive and intelligent solution across the technical and business aspects necessary to effectively mitigate the risk of counterfeits.

Huda Midani managed the Packaging and Labeling Design department at Schreiner ProSecure for several years, for all international product SKU’s. All international product labeling regulatory filings were managed, in conjunction with the company’s Regulatory department to insure compliance and marketability. This included new product launches, extended indications, annual reports and “Changes Being Effected” submissions. In addition to labeling, she was responsible for managing manufacturing DOE (Design of Experiments), packaging design harmonization projects, packaging equipment acquisitions, qualifications and validations. When it came time to expand their manufacturing capacity, she managed the facilities expansion operation, where a new facility was designed and built to manufacture a DEA Class II controlled substance.  She later became responsible for managing corporate partner relationships. As the company expanded their partnerships, they expanded distribution of our products. Therefore, Huda’s role expanded to include International Supply Chain Management. This was an excellent foundation for her next role as the Vice President of Business Development, Pharmaceuticals, for a security material supplier. This role leveraged her background and knowledge of the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain and Manufacturing Operations to deploy security materials into packaging components produced by the converters and printers of the pharmaceutical clients’ choice.  During this role, Huda deployed security programs all over the world, in developed, developing and under developed nations. In this role, product and supply chain security programs and best practices, with pharmaceutical manufacturers, converters, law enforcement agencies both domestically and internationally, were acquired and deployed.

Leonard Nelson is the Chief Operating Officer of Covisus Inc., a subsidiary of ChromoLogic LLC dedicated to counterfeit mitigation and supply assurance.  Leonard has a diverse background in various technology roles including engineering, supply chain management, and business development in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and information technology sectors at IBM Corporation, Global eProcure, and ChromoLogic LLC. At IBM Corp. Mr. Nelson consistently achieved revenue and business partner recruitment targets for IBM’s largest distribution partner and commercial customer. At ChromoLogic LLC, Leonard was responsible for program management on multiple federally funded research projects, including supply chain security research funded by the US Army Research Office.  He is the inventor of multiple patent pending counterfeit mitigation algorithms and methods, and is a member of the SAE International Counterfeit Electronic Components Committee. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University, and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame.

Tom Sharpe is the Vice President of SMT Corporation, located in Sandy Hook Connecticut.  Tom co-founded SMT with his wife Kirsten in 1995 and they have since built SMT into one of the industry’s leading Independent Stocking Distributors of electronic components.  In addition to being a long-time member of ERAI, Tom is the current Vice President of IDEA where he has served continuously on the Board of Directors since the year of it’s formation in 2003.

Tom is an associate member of Aerospace Industry Association’s Counterfeit Parts IPT, and a member of SAE International’s G-19 committee that is currently developing the new AS6081 Independent Distributor certification standard. Tom also serves on the G-19A sub-committee that is drafting the recommended test methods for the AS6171 Component Test & Inspection standard.

Tom is very active on the Defense & Aerospace Industry speaking tour and has become a leading voice from the Independent sector in the fight against counterfeit components in the electronics industry.  Tom’s presentations serve to educate all sectors of the electronics industry about the growing dangers of counterfeits in today’s market, and best practices to detect and mitigate those dangers. 

Kevin Sink is the Director of Quality at TTI, Inc. TTI is a specialty distributor of passive, interconnect, electromechanical and discrete components headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.  Kevin has served with NEDA on counterfeit mitigation strategies and is currently a committee member for SAE developing the counterfeit mitigation standard for distribution, AS6081.   He began his career as a buyer with General Dynamics and has worked in many roles in the electronics industry including sales, product management, sales management and sales operations before assuming responsibility for Quality.  Kevin holds two business degrees from Texas A&M University and is celebrating his 19th year with TTI.  Kevin’s passion for developing and managing new processes and systems makes him well suited to tackle emerging issues in our industry.

Bhanu Sood is the Director of the Test Services and Failure Analysis (TSFA) Laboratory at the University of Maryland's Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE). He holds Masters Degrees in Advance Materials Processing and Materials Science, and a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering. His research areas include root cause failure analysis techniques, materials characterization, electronic parts authentication strategies and failure mechanisms in printed circuit board (PCB) materials. Prior to joining CALCE in 2005 Mr. Sood worked at U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in the areas of embedded electronics, micropower sources, Laser assisted micro-fabrication and, characterization of electrically conductive polymeric formulations. His technical publications include papers on failure site isolation techniques, PCB materials, embedded electronics, energy storage systems and instrumentation for mechanical studies. Mr. Sood has taught numerous industry courses in the areas of electronics reliability, root cause failure analysis techniques and materials characterization tools.

Milton Springut and David A. Kalow and are founding partners of Kalow & Springut LLP, an intellectual property boutique which is one of the leading anti-counterfeiting firms in the United States. They have represented clients in trademark, copyright, trade secret, patent and other intellectual property matters arising in the course of transactions, licensing, litigations and strategic counseling. They have represented clients in industries as diverse as lUXUry goods, computer, electronic, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, clean technology, nanotechnology and medical technology.    

Bob Vermillion is a Professional Development ESD Certification Lecturer for UC Berkeley (Space Sciences Laboratory), San Jose State University, California State Polytechnic University, Loyola-Marymount University and Clemson University. Bob also conducts ESD Seminars for the aerospace/defense, space technology, medical, telecom, electronics, disk media, semiconductor and automotive industries. Other engagements include ESDiscovery 2000-2003 in the USA, Malaysia and Singapore. In Mexico’s Silicon Valley, Bob conducts ESD Materials Seminars for the engineering community, procurement and management for the OEMs and CM industries.  Bob is an iNARTE Certified ESD & Product Safety Engineer and Advisory Council Member of the National Institute of Packaging & Handling Logistics (NIPHLE).  Bob also sits on the BOD of iNARTE, IoPP Golden Gate Chapter and the IOPP Consultants Council. RMV Technology Group, LLC is a Member of the American Council of Independent Labs (ACIL) & Union Internationale des Laboratories Independants (UILI), certified by ESD Journal as an Approved Laboratory, member of IEEE, IoPP and ASTM.  An active member of the ESDA Standards Committee, Bob is also a member of the California Disabled Veterans Business Alliance.  RMV Technology Group, LLC is a SDVOSB/8(a) and SDB Firm, State of California certified Small Business and DVBE #0024505. RMV is a member of GIDEP. 

Katherine Whittington is a Master Trainer for the Independent Distributors of Electronics Association, a non-profit trade association representing quality and ethically oriented independent distributors of electronic components.  She earned her bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley. She has worked for Hughes Aircraft Company and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a component engineer and counterfeit parts specialist. She also has extensive flight experience, including over 6000 hours flight time and a Lear Jet type rating. She facilitates the sharing of information about emerging counterfeit technologies in order to strengthen the industry’s ability to combat counterfeits.

Phil Zulueta is on staff with the Quality Assurance Section, Office of Safety and Mission
Success at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. He is a JPL Program Element Manager for the NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program, Chairman of the JPL Counterfeit Parts Working Group and is Chairman of the SAE International G-19 Counterfeit Electronic Parts Committee. Phil is a Past-President of the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society. Prior to joining JPL, he was Western Regional Manager for Electro-Science Laboratories, Program Manager for Ball Aerospace, Engineering Group Manager for Hughes Microelectronics and a Microelectronics Process Engineer for Northrop Electronics. He earned a Masters in Business Administration from Pepperdine University and a Bachelor’s of Science in Materials Engineering from the California State University Long Beach.

* Biography was not available at time of printing

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