Certified Professionals

Known among associates as Bong, he is the ESD SME at ADI Philippines and its External Suppliers/Subconstractors across Asia Pacific for manufacturing processes and controls. He has been to many big name companies to perform assessments and help improve controls in preventing unwanted ESD events.

Bong began his career in the semiconductor industry in 1991 right after completing his Electronics and Communications Engineering degree at the top echelon of his class at the Mapua Institute of Technology in the Philippines. In 2006, he was entrusted to oversee ADI Philippines’ ESD program.

A passionate, keen learner and a hands-on professional, he has earned his iNARTE ESD Engineer certification in 2010. He has been an active member of the ESD Association and Technical Committee of the Asia Regional chapter.     

Credential ID: https://esdcertification.esda.org/en/c/329c77a69180458aa136e747cbe103f0

Credential ID: https://esdcertification.esda.org/en/c/97cc56d69a75450882c2f1264e509eb8

Robert (Hank) Mead is a Principal Manufacturing Engineer at BAE Systems in Endicott, NY. He has been working in the Electronics industry for over a decade, focusing primarily in Defense and Avionics. Hank received both his Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Engineering and his Master’s Degree in Engineering Management from Northeastern University. On the rare occasion that he isn’t working, he enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife and their dog.

Credential ID: https://esdcertification.esda.org/en/c/955333a829434a8d85cbbdbc644c5bcc

Ron Gibson specializes in manufacturing process control, training, and facility certification in accordance with ANSI/ESD S20.20. He is well known internationally as an outstanding ESD practitioner and as a major contributor to ESD technology since 1987. He is Celestica International’s Global Engineering Consultant and Corporate ESD Program Manager. He provides ESD technical guidance to all Celestica manufacturing sites, worldwide. Ron is highly experienced in manufacturing technology, packaging and all areas of ESD control in the electronic manufacturing process.

Ron is active in the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as the Standards Council of Canada’s (SCC) national representative. In his position as Chair for IEC Technical Committee (TC) 101, Working Group 5, the important ESD Program Standard IEC 61340-5-1 and Handbook IEC 61340-5-2 were fully redeveloped to be technically equivalent to ANSI/ESD S20.20. He served as the ESD Association’s Standards Chair for 10 years and has been a member of the ESD Association since 1988. He has been active in several standards development committees, a contributor to and past General Chairman of the EOS/ESD Technical Symposium, and served in every association officer’s position, including consecutive terms as Treasurer and ESDA President. As a co-founder and developer of the Professional ESD Program Manager Certification program, Ron has lectured and taught a variety of ESD courses internationally for major corporations and professional associations.

Ron received the ESD industry’s highest award, the ESDA Outstanding Contribution Award, for his innovation and extensive list of technical contributions. In particular, he chaired the development and launched the ESD Association’s Facility ESD Certification program based on the ANSI/ESD S20.20 standard. This important benchmark is designed to confirm the effectiveness of a facility’s ESD control program and reduce losses, manufacturing costs, and enhance product reliability. ESD Program Certification is provided to electronics manufacturing facilities only through 3rd party ISO9000 registrars. Ron’s team has trained over 160 ISO9000 Lead Assessors globally.

Credential ID: https://esdcertification.esda.org/en/c/3005c43d4f5e44c5b028708d0f5c9305

Ronnie Millsaps is currently a Global Quality Assurance Manager for Jabil Inc., a contract manufacturer based in St. Petersburg, Florida.  Starting as a Manufacturing supervisor he has had several Quality Engineering roles in plant operations and on a Global Business Development team. In the last five years he has been able to travel to Jabil sites world wide, helping establish new manufacturing locations for Cisco. Currently responsible at four legacy sites for rollout and compliance to customer documents, ESD process capability knowledge became a necessity with the customer’s release of a corporate procedure.

In his time away from work, he enjoys taking his daughter fishing, watching sporting events and rooting for the Florida Gators.  Ronnie and his wife Lisa have been married for 18 years and have one daughter, Hayley.

Sayan Plong-ngooluam, PhD. graduated the B.Ind.Tech in Power Electronics Technology from King Mongkut's Institute of Technology North Bangkok Thailand in 1999, M.ENG in Hard Disk Drive Engineering form Khon Kaen University Thailand in 2011, and PhD. in Electrical Engineering from Prince of Songkla University Thailand in 2017. He also certifies in, iNARTE ESD Control Engineer, ESD TR53-2018 and ESD Device Stress Testing programs, as well as the ESD Program Manager.

Currently (2023), Dr. Sayan is the ESD Engineer, working for the Thailand Head Operation, Western Digital Storage Technologies (Thailand) Limited, Bang Pa-In, Ayutthaya Thailand.

Credential ID: https://esdcertification.esda.org/en/c/f2d2105d0577481b82c754053345ff51

Scott is a team member at Applied Medical Resources in Rancho Santa Margarita Ca. where he works with the team to ensure the efficient and correct flow of materials, such as electronics, through the production area during the manufacture of medical devices.  He works with the team to review and update procedures related to ESD and also participates in troubleshooting.  He has been a team member at Applied Medical Resources since 2012.

Prior to Applied Medical, Scott was an electrical engineer at Seametrics designing and testing flow meters to measure water in pipes.

Scott graduated from Seattle Pacific University with a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and from the University of Washington with a master’s degree in electrical engineering.

Scott Ward joined Texas Instruments in 2007 to work in the field of device-level ESD testing and ESD standards development. His work expanded to factory ESD control, ESD safe handling practices and EOS analysis. Prior to joining Texas Instruments, Scott worked for Cypress Semiconductor from 2001-2007. At Cypress Semiconductor, his work included ESD and Latch-up design and characterization; as well as device testing standards development. He began his career at ZiLOG in 1995, designing on-chip ESD protection networks. Since 2003, he has been a member of the ESDA Working Group 5 standards committee (device testing). Scott joined the JEDEC ESD standards task group in 2005. Scott has attending every EOS/ESD Symposium since his first in 1996. Scott is currently on the STDCOM and TAS within the ESDA standards organization and a member of the Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) ESD and Latch-up sub-teams. Scott co-leads the ESDA-JEDEC JS-001 HBM joint, the AEC Q100-002 HBM and the AEC Q100-011 CDM committees. Since 2012, Scott is on the ESDA Board of Directors. Scott is an iNARTE certified ESD Engineer.  He has an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Idaho (2002) and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Montana State University (1992).

Credential ID: https://esdcertification.esda.org/en/c/71cae2315eba4ae395155f7339079ba3

I’m a FAE in charge of advanced static control products and services at Winifred cleanroom & ESD products (HK) Ltd. After working with micro contamination control for years, I have accumulated quite practical protection experiences on ESD and ESA control. It has always been my goal to work with advanced electronics manufacturers in China to establish ESD control awareness, conduct measurements and set up reliable protections. To do this, I am enjoying learning and sharing my professional knowledge with them.

Outside of work, I like to spend more time with my family. Basketball and fishing are both my hobbies.

Shane Burns originally pursued a career in teaching History and English but took a different direction when he was hired by EFE Labs in 2010 and acquired his Engineering Technology degree.  Shane’s responsibilities included quality control, process design, circuit design, and lean manufacturing of electronic assemblies.  Shane learned hands-on about electrostatic discharge (ESD) as a source of failures in electronic assemblies and how to mitigate it. 

In 2016, Shane joined Electro-Tech Systems, www.electrotechsystems.com,  as Lead Lab Technician.  Shane excelled in learning more about ESD phenomenon and testing under the guidance of industry veteran and pioneer, Stan Weitz.  Today, as Test Lab Manager, Shane now oversees the world class ETS Testing Center in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, performing ESD testing, material analysis, teaching, and consulting.  Shane continues to pursue his quest for knowledge about electrical and electrostatic phenomena via his studies at Penn State, ESDA certifications, and active involvement in ESDA committee efforts.

I am the ESD Coordinator at Digi-Key Electronics. I started as a Technical Support Specialist in 2004 and in 2009 my main focus shifted to create a certified ESD program at Digi-Key. Currently I maintain Digi-Key’s Certified ESD Program. I have been a member of the ESD Association since 2010 and I am currently a member of various working groups.

I graduated from Bismarck State College, Bismarck ND, in 2004 with an AAS in Electronics/Telecommunications Technology.

Credential ID: https://esdcertification.esda.org/en/c/080b48b721974504ae50cd1630c3180b

Credential ID: https://esdcertification.esda.org/en/c/7b530a7311e3491d9d6f8c261b1e18fe

Stephen Halperin has over 30 years of ESD control experience in complex applications. Mr. Halperin formed Stephen Halperin & Associates, Limited (SH&A) in 1983, a consulting firm specializing in ESD problem analysis, laboratory testing, training, and product design. In 1992, he established Prostat Corporation for the design and manufacture of professional auditing instruments.

Mr. Halperin is known for his work in facility and process evaluation of highly sensitive environments, and his many contributions to the growth of the electrostatics industry and ESD Association (ESDA). He has lectured and consulted throughout North America, Europe, and the Far East, and has provided advisory services to major corporations in several industries. He is a charter member of the ESDA, has served several terms as an elected member of it's Board of Directors, chaired Local Chapter Development, Education, Professional Certification, and Standards committees. Mr. Halperin was elected Vice President in 1999, and served consecutive terms as Senior Vice President and President.

Mr. Halperin has been a long-term supporter of the Electrostatic Society of America and is the former Technical Advisor to ANSI’s USNC/IEC Committee. He is a recipient of the EOS/ESD Symposium’s Outstanding Paper Award, received the Association’s Outstanding Contribution Award for his work on behalf of industry. He is the recipient of the Joel P. Wiedendorf Memorial Award for his many Standards contributions. Mr. Halperin has delivered several papers on electrostatics and authored over 100 articles on related subjects. He is NARTE certified and a Certified ESD Program Manager Instructor.

Stephen Hilbert is a System Engineer for Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas. His current responsibilities include the characterization and mitigation of ESD issues specific to Pantex operations.  He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Texas Tech University.

Steve is presently a Project engineer for Lockheed Martin Corporation supporting the Space Station Program. His responsibilities include primary cable and electronics engineer as well as supporting the ESD program for the contract he is working. 

Before this, he was an Electrical and Computer engineer at United Space Alliance in Houston TX. He was the lead engineer for a number of projects including an upgrade to the astronaut communication headset used for launch and return. Prior to this he worked as an electronic technician on Space Shuttle simulator avionics including the primary computer for the Space Shuttle.

Steve received his B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Houston, Clear Lake. 

Outside of work, Steve enjoys spending time with his wife Deanna and fulfilling his role as a pastor of a church near home.

Credential ID: https://esdcertification.esda.org/en/c/3099404b25b14251935574ae713080be