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July 2017 • The PCB Design Magazine 65 Goldman: Joe, thanks for your time today. Good to talk with you. O'Neil: Thank you. Off to the next meeting! PCBDESIGN _____________________________________ Anaya Vardya American Standard Circuits I spoke with Anaya Vardya, president and CEO of American Standard Circuits, a few days after the conclusion of IMPACT. I especially wanted his views as a first-timer there. Patty Goldman: Anaya, as a first-time visitor to IMPACT, what were your impressions of the event? Vardya: I thought it was a great event. I was very pleased that we were able to participate. Both Chairman Gordhan Patel and I participated. It's been on our radar for several years, but we've always ended up with scheduling conflicts; this year we were fortunate not to have one. It was very beneficial for us. It's kind of a two-way dialogue, right? You get to listen to what the government is thinking of, you get to go participate, talk to the government represen- tatives, your competitors, and your customers. Goldman: A little bit of everything for everyone. Vardya: Yes, there was a lot of interaction. Goldman: Well, you picked a good year to come. I thought all the people who were invited to speak to us really were looking for informa- tion from us, and I don't remember that from last year. This year, they were so forthcoming and said, "Please tell us how you're doing, tell us what you need, we want to know." That was really great. Did you enjoy the trip to the EPA? Vardya: I loved the trip to the EPA. It was good to meet administrator Pruitt. I thought he was a good listener and that he was keen on under- standing what some of our issues were, and intent on trying to get regulations removed that didn't make sense or that weren't based on science. At the end of the day, we all want clean water and clean air. That's important to all of us because we live in the communities where our businesses are. But I think there are some regu- lations that don't need to be the way they are, and I felt like at least he was open to listening to us and was very engaged with our group. Goldman: In my opinion, it seems a big step forward to have been able to speak with the top person there. I don't recall EPA being on the agenda last year, so IPC must not have been able to get anybody to talk with our group. So to be able to speak to the top guy, I think that's very good. Vardya: I was excited about that, for sure. Goldman: Do any of the other speakers stand out in your mind? Vardya: Well, I was quite impressed by Kim Ford, from the Department of Education. It was interesting to see that level of enthusiasm for what's going on today with their department, especially because she's been in the Washington, DC system for a very long time, and throughout the previous administration. Goldman: Yes. I found that website she men- tioned. It's interesting and there's a lot of useful information on it. Let's see, who else did we talk with? Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who's an amputee; that was pretty good, too. Vardya: She was very impressive. And it's in- teresting, one of the things that I noticed is that on a lot of these core issues that impact our IMPACT Interviews Anaya Vardya