Four Industry Leaders Receive IPC President’s Award at IPC APEX EXPO 2025

In recognition of their leadership and significant contributions of time and talent to IPC and the electronics industry, four IPC volunteers were presented with the IPC President’s Award at IPC APEX EXPO in Anaheim, Calif., on March 18, 2025. Recipients were Xaver Feiner, Zollner Elektronik AG; Thomas Marktscheffel, ASMTPT GmbH; Barry Matties, IPC Publishing Group/I-Connect007; and Cathy Hanlin, Precision Manufacturing Company Inc.

Xaver Feiner is an active member of the IPC Europe Advocacy Group, where he dedicates his time to advancing the position of the electronics industry and the EMS sector across Europe. He has testified before the European Commission to support Europe’s EMS industry. He is also active in IPC’s EMS Leadership Summit, working closely with other EMS leaders to bring improvements and innovation to the manufacturing process.

Thomas Marktscheffel shares his expertise with IPC as a member and leader of several committees and is a driving force for global industry standards such as IPC-2591 CFX and IPC-HERMES-9852. Marktscheffel has been involved with IPC standards development since 2015 when he joined the IPC-1782 A-team. He is active on A-teams for IPC-2591, IPC-HERMES-9852, IPC-2551, IPC-2552, and IPC-2553, with the overarching goal of providing standards for Factory of the Future. Currently, Marktscheffel is chair of the IPC 2-10 committee, co-chair of the IPC-2591 CFX Task Group, and chair of several A-teams.

Barry Matties is a leading force in publishing content about the electronics industry. I-Connect007 is the leading online media source for original electronics manufacturing supply chain content. I-Connect007 publishes multiple magazines, newsletters, books, webinars, podcasts, and real-time event coverage. For the past several years, Matties and I-Connect007 have been a valuable media partner for IPC APEX EXPO, dedicating entire issues of its trade magazines to covering the show. During APEX EXPO, I-Connect007 conducts interviews with dozens of industry leaders and multiple IPC staff and publishes the IPC APEX EXPO Show and Tell magazine, a 200-page retrospective of the show.

A posthumous President’s Award was presented to valued industry member, Cathy Hanlin, with Precision Manufacturing Company, Inc. Hanlin was a valued IPC/WHMA committee member whose extensive contributions to standards development are well known. She held leadership roles on 7-31F: IPC WHMA-A-620 Task Group, 7-31FT: IPC WHMA-A-620 Training Committee, 7-31FT-AT: Training Wheelz, and 5-22A- Blue Hedgehog A-Teams. 

“The leadership and expertise of Xaver, Thomas, Barry and Cathy have been indispensable to our industry,” said John W. Mitchell, IPC president and CEO. “We were proud to show our appreciation for their significant contributions to IPC and the global electronics industry by presenting them with the IPC President’s Award.”