he PSMA Annual Meeting, traditionally held in person during APEC, was held virtually for a second year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Over 60 PSMA members and guests attended the meeting to elect four individuals to the Board of Directors, to get an update on  the current activities of PSMA, to ask questions and to join in the open discussion.

Ajay Hari	Tim McDonald
George Slama	Renee Yawger

Mike Hayes opened the meeting at 10 a.m. CDT welcomed all attendees andintroduced the other members of the Executive Committee - Fred Weber, President; Trifon Liakopoulos, Vice-President; and Tim McDonald, Secretary/Treasurer.

The first item of business was the approval of the minutes from the 2020 Annual Meeting. This was followed by the election of four people to the Board of Directors. Each candidate nominated introduced themselves and provided a brief summary of their background and reasons for wanting to serve on the board. Ballots had been distributed in advance of the meeting to the designated representative from all Regular Member companies and additional votes were accepted during the first half of the meeting.

After all ballot were received. the following candidates were elected to the Board of Directors for the three-year term (2021-2024):

• Ajay Hari, ON Semiconductor
• Tim McDonald, Infineon Technologies
• George Slama, Wurth Electronics
• Renee Yawger, Efficient Power Conversion (EPC)

Mike Hayes and the meeting attendees congratulated Tim McDonald who was elected for his second term and congratulated and welcomed the three new directors and thanked nominee John Bultitude of KEMET Corporation for his continued contributions to the Packaging & Manufacturing Committee and to PSMA.

The Chair recognized the contributions of Alexander Gerfer and Kevin Parmenter whose terms as Director expired at the meeting.

Chair's Report

On behalf of the Executive Committee, Mike Hayes briefly reviewed and discussed his vision and objectives that had been presented last year and outlined the 4 pillars for sustenance and smart growth, each championed by a member of the Executive Committee:

• Keeping and Nurturing the Good Stuff – Tim McDonald,
• Becoming more Applications and Problems oriented – Fred Weber,
• Define and integrate metrics to monitor the parameters that matter – Trifon Liakopoulos,
• Engage more with stakeholders – Mike Hayes

The PSMA Strategic Direction continues to include focus on IoT, Energy Storage and Smart Mobility. Mike highlighted the importance of providing educational resources to encourage students to enter the industry and inform and motivate professionals, especially younger professionals and thanked everyone who is involved with expanding the Industry-Education Committee initiatives.

In his summary Mike Hayes discussed some of the major Next Steps for the Association which include careful planning and financial monitoring to get back to stability from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic; further building links with other Industry Associations, including iNEMI, IPC, IEEE PELS, EPSMA and CPSS; focusing on KPIs; and using the Pillars to build  growth, succession planning  and sustainability Mike highlighted the great progress that has been made in the past year and the opportunities in the coming year. Mike recognized the contributions of the many volunteers who contribute to PSMA and, welcomed others to get involved.

Power of the Pillars

Fred Weber provided a brief update of the Power of the Pillars by first reviewing the status of the Tiger Team initiatives and giving a brief overview of those that have been accomplished, those that are in progress, and those that are currently tabled. Tiger Teams were introduced in the fall of 2018 by previous PSMA Chair Stephen Oliver and have had great success over the last few years in turning words into actions.

Fred then outlined the longer-term goals which currently include inter-committee interactions, becoming more application and solution focused, and growing the PSMA eco-system. He briefly reviewed the progress and current status of these initiatives.

Financial Update

Tim McDonald, Secretary/Treasurer, presented the Financial Report which included the current financial status of the Association and a seven-quarter financial forecast. Tim reviewed the background and assumptions used in developing the forecastand emphasized the forecast is based on the best-known data available - which may, and probably will, change as more becomes known on the results of APEC2021 and the several workshops scheduled over the next several months.

Tim highlighted the inherent risks in the forecast and the critical need to increase revenue from membership and other activities. All of the events PSMA sponsors over the past year have been postponed or switched to virtual and it is unknown when in-person events will resume. This has had and will continue to have a negative financial impact on PSMA. He set a goal to identify an additional revenue by the end of calendar year 2022 to make up for the losses experienced due to the impact of Covid-19.

APEC 2021

Conor Quinn, APEC 2021 General Chair, provided an overview of the strong Technical Program planned for APEC 2021 with six Plenary speakers lined up, 3 rap sessions, 16 Professional Education Seminars, and a full schedule of Technical and Industry Sessions. Thirteen of the Industry Sessions for APEC2021 have been organized by PSMA Committees.

Conor noted that the APEC Steering Committee and Sponsors are monitoring the ongoing uncertainties due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and a final decision on whether the conference will take place in-person or virtually is expected in the coming weeks. The safety of attendees and ability for the international APEC community to attend are key factors being considered. With the unexpected shift to virtual last year, APEC 2020 was a limited virtual event. Planning for APEC 2021 has included virtual contingencies to ensure that the quality of the conference will be maintained in either format. If the conference is held virtually, a platform provider has been selected with excellent capabilities, including live and on demand content and an interactive Expo Hall.

Note: APEC 2021 has since announced that the conference will be held virtually. For more information, see the article on page 1 of this issue.

Committee Reports

Each of the PSMA Committees presented their report for the past year and future plans. You can read more about these on page 3 of this issue.

Invited Speaker

The invited speaker at this year's Annual Meeting was Liuchen Chang, Power Electronics Society (PELS) President (2021-2022). PELS is one of the 46 IEEE Societies. He reviewed the organization of IEEE and PELS, membership, list of major sponsored conferences, technical committees, and current initiatives.

Luichen discussed the PELS 5-Year Strategic Plan and their interest in further strengthening the partnership with PSMA. He also identified a number of specific areas for collaboration that would be of benefit to both organizations and the power electronics community.

Mike Hayes thanked Luichen for his presentation and affirmed that PSMA will continue to work with and expand the areas of mutual benefits.

Open Discussion

Chair Mike Hayes then opened the floor for discussion of the major issues facing the Association and suggestions for future initiatives. Several attendees provided ideas and input on the need for PSMA to identify new revenue sources. It was noted that PSMA dues are relatively low when compared to other industry associations but some expressed concern that a large dues increase may result in the loss of members. Suggestions offered included recognizing the largest member companies do receive more benefits than smaller companies based on their number of employees and locations. It was also pointed out that the dues revenue can be increased by expanding the membership. Other suggestions included identifying sponsorship opportunities for webinars and events, as long as it can be accomplished while avoiding commercial influence or the appearance of such on the activities. The Board of Directors will consider all of the suggestions discussed.

Before adjourning, Chair Mike Hayes noted that this was the second year that the meeting was held as a virtual event and expressed hope that we can resume the face-to-face meeting at APEC2022. Mike Hayes thanked all presenters and attendees for their participation and suggestions.

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