ver 70 PSMA members and guests attended the PSMA Annual Meeting, held at the Anaheim Marriott in Anaheim, CA on Monday March 18, 2019.

The buffet breakfast before the meeting start provided attendees an opportunity for networking and meeting colleagues. The Chairman Stephen Oliver officially opened the meeting by welcoming all the attendees and asked each to briefly introduce themselves. Among those present were many of the 60 recipients of the APEC Student Travel Support. This support is provided jointly by IAS, PELS and PSMA and attracted 109 applicants from 63 different schools in 16 countries.

Next on the agenda was the election of five people to the Board of Directors. The following candidates were elected to the Board of Directors for the three-year term (2019-2022):

Ada Cheng (Affiliate Member) was elected to fill the unexpired term (2019-2020) vacated by Alain Chapuis.

Stephen Oliver and the attendees congratulated and welcomed Trifon Liakopoulos, Ralph Taylor, and Matt Wilkowski and Ada Cheng as newly elected Directors.

The Chair recognized the contributions of Michel Grenon and Brian Narveson whose terms as Directors expired at the meeting and expressed the appreciation of PSMA for their service and continued contributions to the Association.

Stephen Oliver then presented an award to Trifon Liakopoulos in recognition of his outstanding contributions over the past three PwrSoC Workshops as Financial Chair for each of the events. He also presented awards to Dhaval Dalal and Conor Quinn for their Quinn for their leadership as Co-Chairs of the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap.

Trifon Liakopoulos and Stephen Oliver

Conor Quinn, Dhaval Dalal and Stephen Oliver

PSMA Chairman, Stephen Oliver

The Chair briefly reviewed some of the major accomplishments of the association for the past year including:

• Organizing 9 Industry Sessions for APEC2019
• Organizing the fourth Magnetics Workshop and second Capacitor Workshop the day prior to APEC2019
• Holding EnerHarv, PwrSoC and 3D-PEIM workshops and a joint workshop with CPSS in China during 2018
• Continuous updating of the Energy Efficiency and Safety and Compliance Data Bases
• Publishing for 2019 Power Technology Roadmap
• Joint sponsorship of APEC Student Travel Awards

Stephen also reviewed the Membership Statistics since APEC 2018 which currently shows a total of more than 200 Members – a new high.

The Chairman then discussed his vision for the organization. He looks to continue the amazing growth of the activities of the Technical Committees to make PSMA the relevant source for technology and market trends, to increase collaborations with selected partners, to have an increased presence on social media, and to increase the Regular Membership by focusing on emerging markets. He highlighted the successes and continuing work of the newly formed "Tiger Teams", powerful, agile groups of experts brought together for a single, short project, to address some of the current opportunities and challenges. Stephen also encouraged the membership to pick one or two of the Technical Committees and to actively participate in their activities as being the best way for people to increase the benefits of membership.

Following the Chairman's Report was a Financial Report. Outgoing Secretary/ Treasurer, Michel Grenon was unable to attend the meeting. but provided a report on the current financial status of the Association and a six-quarter financial forecast. Joe Horzepa reviewed the report which supported that the financial status and outlook for the Association continues to be very positive The surpluses from APEC conference together with the PSMA sponsored and co-sponsored workshops and events should generate sufficient funds to support a number of Special Projects that can be of benefit for the membership and the power sources industry.

Each of the PSMA Committees presented a report. You can read more about these on page 3 of this issue.

Ernie Parker, General Chair for APEC 2019, provided an update on the overall conference. APEC2019 is expected to be a financial success with a full program of events. The schedule includes 18 Professional Educational Seminars, 592 Technical Papers in 8 parallel sessions and Dialog session, 119 Industry Sessions in 5 parallel sessions, 3 Rap Sessions, 302 exhibitors in the Exhibit Hall and a Social Event.

Jose Cobos will be the General Chair for APEC 2020 which will be held at the Ernest Moria Convention Center in New Orleans LA March 15 – 19, 2020.

Manfred Schlenk, EPSMA Vice President

The invited speaker at this year's Annual Meeting was Manfred Schlenk from the European Power Sources Association – EPSMA - who presented an overview of the number of companies in the organization and the current focus. They have a 17-member Technical Committee with experts on safety, EMC, and product qualification. The output of the Technical Committee includes a series of best practices and design guides. The organization also works to influence international standards with CENELEC as a liaison partner.

Before adjourning, Chairman Stephen Oliver asked the attendees for their comments and any suggestions for the future directions and activities for Association that would increase the value of their membership. A number of areas were discussed including suggestions for encouraging students to participate in the industry and to consider career opportunities in power sources and power electronics. These and other suggestions will be considered by the Board. Stephen Oliver thanked all presenters and attendees for their participation and invited interested individuals to attend the March meeting of the PSMA Board of Directors, which immediately followed.
The minutes from the PSMA Annual Meeting have been posted in the Members Only area of the PSMA web site together with the charts from the presentations.

The Sunday prior to the Annual Meeting PSMA hosted a reception with members of the China Power Supply Society (CPSS). This provided a great opportunity for members of both organizations to network and discuss options and activities that will benefit members of both organizations over the next year. Several members of CPSS also attended the PSMA Annual Meeting.

The Annual Meeting, PSMA Committee meetings, as well as the technical sessions, seminars, Industry Presentations, exhibits and other events kept PSMA members busy all the week. The APEC social event, featured a number of Food Trucks serving a variety of food options, several game activities and music, gave everyone a chance to relax and enjoy themselves.

There was a full exhibit hall at APEC 2019. Many of the PSMA member companies exhibiting participated in a "Passport" game in which attendees who visited their booths had their passport booklets stamped. Attendees turned in their completed passports for a chance to win an AirPods, a Samsung Smartwatch and the grand prize a Charles and Colvard Necklace, Featuring Gemstone Grade Silicon Carbide by Wolfspeed, A Cree Company. Traffic to members' booths was brisk and the lucky winners were very happy with the prizes. 

PSMA APEC Passport Prize Winners

If you or anyone in your company is interested in getting on the distribution list for future issues of PSMA UPDATE, please send e-mail to: power@psma.com. Be sure to include your name and the name of your company.