Shane Whiteside Appointed as New PCBAA Chair

Interview by Marcy LaRont

I-Connect 007

Summit Interconnect President and CEO Shane Whiteside was recently appointed as chair of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America (PCBAA), replacing Travis Kelly, CEO of Isola Group. Shane’s distinguished career in PCB manufacturing and leadership spans several decades, so this new role lends itself well to PCBAA’s mission as an important advocacy vehicle for the PCB industry. The association has been instrumental in educating and influencing Washington, D.C., on what security in the electronics supply chain in America truly looks like and that it goes far beyond chips.

Marcy LaRont: Shane, what are your ambitions as chair of PCBAA?

Shane Whiteside: Marcy, I’ve been elected to a two-year term. My ambition as PCBAA chair is to apply my industry experience to the strategic direction of the association. I intend to build on the solid foundation and vision that Travis Kelly established for the association. We will continue the “Educate, Advocate and Legislate” framework, which has proven to be an effective method for getting our issues recognized, understood, and acted on.

In the years ahead, we must continue to grow our membership and expand our outreach in Washington. There are many competing demands on policymakers and legislators. We need to play a long game and consistently engage decision-makers in Washington to drive awareness of what we need to improve our nation’s prospects for becoming more competitive and less reliant on foreign sources for PCBs and substrates.

What have you learned from Travis Kelly’s leadership?

One thing I’ve observed in the association’s early life is the power of networking. Travis used his connections to attract new members. Because our industry is relatively small, we have the advantage of sharing common challenges, customers, and suppliers. Most of our members come to us because a member dis[1]covered the benefits of being part of PCBAA and convinced others to join. As our member[1]ship grows, we hope to see this multiplier effect continue. I will certainly reach out to companies in our ecosystem and encourage others to do the same.

Why should U.S. PCB fabricators and their suppliers join PCBAA?

The first reason is that PCBAA is the only association focused on PCBs. We are grateful for the close partnership we have with IPC and PCEA, but we were created with the sole mission of restoring the PCB industry in America. Over the past few decades, our once-domestic market has shifted overseas, chasing the cost savings generated by foreign government subsidies and low wages.

Congress passed the CHIPS Act when our domestic percentage of the world supply of semiconductors had sunk to 12%. An immense amount of government investment in semiconductors was appropriated to rebalance our share of domestic production. The still largely untold story here is that semiconductors aren’t the only technology we need to become less reliant on foreign microelectronics.

We continually meet with policymakers and legislators to let them know that “chips don’t float” and that there are two other layers of the technology stack for chips to function. More alarming than semiconductors is the erosion of the U.S. PCB supply to the world market, which has deteriorated from 30% to 4%. We need to continue driving this message and that government investments and incentives are urgently needed to restore our PCB industry’s position to serve the needs of our national security and critical infrastructure.

PCBAA is the unified voice for the industry in Washington. The more members we have, the more impact we will see.

What are the benefits of membership in PCBAA?

Membership gives you a voice in Washington. For many companies, the cost to establish a Washington office can be significant, but PCBAA provides advocacy and communication services for a much more modest investment. PCBAA also connects manufacturers, suppliers, and assemblers through our network, as we share common issues and challenges and can often help each other. Also, PCBAA provides weekly industry intelligence reports and government and industry speakers at bimonthly meetings.

Why is it important for industry members and business owners to be involved right now?

It is a critical time for the entire microelectronics industry. Congress passed legislation that recognized the need to support one-third of the technologies needed to make America more competitive on the world stage. We must fight for recognition in the swirl of competing interests in Washington. Without support for PCBs and substrates, our national investment in semiconductors is at risk. What most officials in Washington still don’t understand is that even with new fabs cranking out chips in a few years, we can’t match that output here. Most of those new chips will get shipped to Asia. It doesn’t make sense from a national or economic security perspective to fail to invest in our industry now.

What do you hope to accomplish specifically as a leader of PCBAA?

There are three main goals I’m focused on as I begin this role.

First is the obvious need to expand our membership. In addition to manufacturers, assemblers, and materials providers, I would also like to see us attract our non-defense OEMs that build into critical infrastructure. H.R.3249 would be a bottom-line advantage for them to buy American-made PCBs, and it would be powerful to add their significant influence to our efforts.

Second, in addition to gaining co-sponsors for H.R.3249, we need a Senate companion bill. With the election season looming, we likely won’t see more action until 2025, but we continue to meet with members of the House and Senate to gain their support.

Third, we need to expand our outreach through a whole-of-government approach. We have the attention of decision-makers at the Pentagon and have seen funding flowing through the Defense Production Act. While the defense market is important to many of our member companies, including my own, every critical industry vertical relies on electronics to function. Just as we need trusted, secure, and reliable sources of PCBs and substrates for defense applications, the same goes for banking, medical devices, telecommunications, the power grid, air traffic control, and others.