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PCB-Dec2015

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66 The PCB Magazine • December 2015 by Patty Goldman I-cOnnect007 Recently, I met with IPC's Director of Regu- latory Affairs and Government Relations, Fern Abrams. In the course of our conversation, we delved into everything from what her role en- tails and recent regulatory matters, to some of the group's successes and why companies need to get involved (it matters to your representa- tives in Congress or Parliament). Patty Goldman: Fern, tell me about your position at IPC, and what you do. Fern Abrams: Regarding my title, I am currently the director of regulatory affairs and govern- ment relations. Our vice president for govern- ment relations, John Hasselmann, wanted to emphasize the regulatory aspects of our work, hence, the reason for the title change. Goldman: And what have you been doing lately? Abrams: This week I've been here at SMTA, where we're holding our IPC fall meetings. On Monday we recognized the 2-18h Conflict Min- eral Due Diligence Committee, for which I am IPC's Fern Abrams: Keeping up with Regulatory Matters the staff liaison, for publishing a conflict miner- als due diligence guide that was a long time in the making, and I think they're pretty pleased. It's a celebration well-earned. Then I gave a pre- sentation to the EMS Executive Council. They had a meeting in conjunction with the fall meetings, and I delivered an update on some of the issues that I've been working on. The rest of the week I've been working as a staff liaison during committee meetings that are pertinent to the work I do. In addition to the due diligence commit- tee, we have a number of standards commit- tees, mostly in the areas of what we call data exchange standards, and they help companies define the information that they pass up and down through the supply chain. So many regu- lations, especially international, such as REACH and RoHS, and now conflict minerals, require companies to be responsible for not just what they make, but all through their supply chain. That data has to move up and down the sup- ply chain, and that's what those data exchange standards facilitate. Goldman: Our December issues are going to fo- cus on trade associations. Perhaps you can expand a little bit more on your portion of IPC, the regu- FeATure inTerview

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