our members of the PSMA Board of Directors are elected at the Annual Meeting held every year during the APEC conference. Each Director serves a three year term and is eligible to be reelected for one additional term.

In this issue we would like you to meet Carl Blake, who was elected to his second term at APEC 2012 and Eric Persson elected to his first term at APEC 2011.

Carl Blake • Board member WSTS and PSMA, Sr. Member IEEE, Marketing Consultant

Carl is currently the Chairman of the PSMA, a board member of WSTS, a senior member of the IEEE and head of his own consulting company, CBK that is consulting to Transphorm. Carl began his career as a Systems Design Engineer gaining practical experience in power supply, RF and logic design. During his career he progressed through many levels of engineering and management of power supply, RF systems and power semiconductors departments and business units prior to moving over to marketing.

In 2008 Carl moved to Transphorm to focus upon the emerging market of GaN devices for power electronics. Carl has been a frequent presenter at APEC and other conferences throughout the world in the field of power electronics; including being invited twice as Plenary Speaker at APEC 1994 and 2009. He has authored more than 40 articles and presentations about new power devices during the past 20 years.

Being an active participant in the Power Sources Manufacturers Association since the early 90’s was a rewarding effort before becoming a member of the Board of Directors as well as previous Co-Chair of the Technology Roadmap committee. He was elected to the PSMA Board of Directors in 2009 and 2012 and is currently the 2012 to 2014 Chairman of the PSMA BOD. Carl now splits his time between consulting and retirement, enjoying the flexibility this offers to spend more time with the grandchildren while still staying active in the industry during these exciting times.

Carl’s goal for PSMA during his time in a leadership position is to encourage other people to become more involved with PSMA so they may experience the joy of working in such a dynamic organization for the good of the industry. PSMA is now expanding into new conferences and picking up the challenge to provide increased services to the industry.

Provided by Carl Blake, Chairman of the Board, PSMA

He joined International Rectifier in 2000 as Power IC Application Manager, then advanced to FAE and FAE management roles. He is now Executive Director of Applications and Marketing, focusing his efforts on IR’s Gallium Nitride program. He has remained active in IEEE, as Section Executive officer in the ‘90s, and more recently as an officer of the Twin Cities Section PELS chapter. He is co-chair of professional education seminars for APEC 2014.

Eric has presented more than 70 tutorials and papers at conferences including APEC, PESC, IAS, IECON, PCIM Europe, HFPC, and EPE among others. He regularly presents short courses and tutorials at UW Madison, the University of Minnesota and Purdue University. Mr. Persson holds 13 patents, and is a recipient of the IEEE Third Millennium Medal. 

Provided by Eric Persson, Executive Director of Applications and Marketing, International Rectifier

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