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JANUARY 2026 I I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE 119 at the time for PCB manufacturers as ISO was still years from development, but the quality aspects focused on product performance and not necessar- ily on systems. MIL-P-55110 evolved over the years with various revisions under MIL-PRF-55110 to the current MIL-PRF-31032. Over the next 17 years in PCB manufacturing (22 years in total), I consistently pursued larger and more challenging opportunities, holding executive leadership positions at several PCB shops, primar- ily in quality but also in engineering and opera- tions. This was a tremendous learning opportunity as these shops supported not only the military, but also medical, automotive, and industrial customers. It was during this time that I earned my undergrad- uate degree in organizational management, which would prove pivotal later in my career when I transi- tioned out of PCB manufacturing. Many of these companies are no longer around, or have been acquired by other companies, includ- ing Kalmus & Associates (later Aurora Circuits, which closed in 2024), Pho-Tronics (now HT Global Pho-Tronics), Colonial Circuits (now FTG Circuits), and Viktron (ASC/Sunstone Circuits now occu- pies the West Chicago facility). I have kept in touch with many of my prior colleagues, many of which are current clients, and love to tell stories from the "good old days." here are a couple of particularly memorable ones. Pho-Tronics At Pho-Tronics, I had risen to the position of oper- ations manager, and after a number of challenging years, the company returned to profitability. Pho- Tronics was owned by ER Wagner, a large Wiscon- sin manufacturing company with additional divi- sions in metal fabrication, castings, and industrial hardware. During one monthly staff meeting with our boss, ER Wagner's CEO, he announced that the board had made the decision to sell the now profitable Pho- Tronics division. After the shock passed, he also stated that the senior leadership team, of which I was a member, would be tasked with presenting the dog-and-pony show to potential buyers until a suitable match was found. One day, I found myself presenting the merits of Pho-Tronics to the current majority stockholder of Electro-Tek, sitting across the conference room table from me. He was the man who had forced my dad out of the company he had built. It was only after the meeting that we found out he was not there to buy Pho-Tronics, but rather to ask ER Wagner to buy Electro-Tek as he had developed a terminal illness. That meeting truly tested my abil- ity to keep my emotions in check, and the company was eventually sold as planned to another shop, National Technology. ISO Quality Management System I was the director of Quality for the two Illinois facil- ities of Viktron, where I was charged with creating my first ISO Quality Management System (QMS) from scratch. I have to give a shout-out to my most influential quality mentor, Greg Masciana, the cor- porate director of quality over the five Viktron facili- ties. We had nothing in place: no procedures, work instructions, or any standardized work, so the task was daunting, and the timeline was less than a year. While I was the driving force for the project, it was the culture change and willingness of every single employee to buy into the vision that made it happen. I still stay in touch with several individuals involved in the project who have moved on to other companies, and we all acknowledge that we were part of something truly special that will be one of the highlights of our careers. We became the first PCB company in the state of Illinois to achieve ISO certification, and passed every audit with zero find- ings due to the dedication of the workforce to "walk the walk" on a daily basis. Part 2 of my story will detail the next 15 years of my career as I moved from PCB manufacturing to contract manufacturing and the challenges of estab- lishing and managing a global supply base of PCB and other custom manufacturing suppliers. PCB007 Steve Williams is president of The Right Approach Consult- ing. He is also an indepen- dent certified coach, trainer, and speaker with the John Maxwell team. To read past columns, click here. T H E R I G H T A PPROAC H