SANTA CLARA, CA – SEPTEMBER 29, 2026 – The Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA) today named Rick Hartley, Susy Webb, Gary Ferrari and Hayao Nakahara recipients of the PCEA Lifetime Achievement Award.
The award is presented in recognition and with great appreciation for their years of loyalty and dedicated service to the printed circuit industry, advancing technology through shared knowledge, leadership, and collective excellence.
The announcement was made at the PCEA annual meeting in conjunction with the PCB West conference and exhibition.
Hartley was one of the cofounders of PCEA in 2020 and was the first chair of its Conferences Task Group. He also reviewed much of the reference material in the Education section of PCEA’s website. In his 50 years in the electronics design industry, Hartley has become a go-to for training on signal integrity, noise control, and EMI. He is the most popular speaker in the history of the PCB West conference and coauthored the Certified Printed Circuit Engineer curriculum.
“Rick Hartley’s name is synonymous not only with design engineering but, even more importantly, with sharing what you know with your industry peers and colleagues,” said Mike Buetow, president, PCEA, in announcing the awards. “He is a bright example of the power of determination and positivity, and he embodies the best in what PCEA offers its members and the industry.”
A senior PCB designer with 40 years of experience, Webb is synonymous with PCB East and PCB West, where she has taught for nearly 20 years. She is a former writer and columnist for PCD&F, a chapter author for Clyde Coombs’ Printed Circuits Handbook, and a judge for the annual Siemens TLA competition.
For PCEA, Webb is vice chairman of the Executive Board and a member of the Education Committee and Conferences Task Group. She has been one of the most popular presenters in the history of the PCB East and PCB West technical conferences and a significant contributor to the PCEA Training Design Certification curriculum.
“For going on four decades, Susy Webb has epitomized what giving back to the industry is all about,” Buetow said. “Name the job in the printed circuit industry, and Susy has done it. Her utmost professionalism, her willingness to help anyone at any time, and her ability to always think in terms of both the short and long term have been invaluable, and she is a strong leadership voice and mentor across the organization.”
Ferrari is also one of the founding members of PCEA. His experience promoting the design profession dates to the early 1990s and the formation of the Designers Council, of which he was executive director for more than a decade. He later charted the path that became PCEA and was key in developing the organization’s charter and mission.
“Gary Ferrari is perhaps the person most responsible for PCEA’s early credibility, and he was a strong voice that PCEA be open to working with anyone,” Buetow said. “For two generations, Gary was the go-to for designers worldwide, and his energy and passion for the industry will likely never be matched.”
Nakahara is the leading authority on the printed circuit marketplace, visiting scores of board shops across four continents each year. For more than 30 years, he has produced the NTI-100 list of the largest board fabricators, along with reams of additional data on the market.
“Hayao Nakahara’s market research has been an invaluable service to business leaders and marketers for planning and strategy,” Buetow said.
