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Sticking to His Roots Earns Carano IPC Hall of Fame Nod
March 31, 2014 |Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Growing up, Mike Carano watched his father and mother work for charitable groups. They taught their son that volunteerism was an important part of being involved in a community.
Given that background, it's not surprising that he's done so much for IPC that he's being honored as the newest member of IPC's Hall of Fame. This tribute came after nearly 30 years of diligent effort. From his first event, the Technology Market Research Council (TMRC) meeting, Carano viewed IPC as a fun and inspiring industry association.
"The president of my company said I should get involved with IPC, so I went to a TMRC meeting," Carano said. "I thought it was the coolest thing, it was a great place to network and the view of things happening around the world that influenced our business was really something. I got information that would have cost thousands of dollars and taken days of effort if I could have found it at all."
Over the next few years, he attended a few meetings and did some committee work, but wasn't deeply involved. But in the early 1990s, he was asked to set up a Professional Development course for the first IPC APEX EXPO®, and things changed.
"From then on, I developed several more professional development courses for IPC and started presenting at two or three IPC conferences every year," Carano said.
He also got involved in the IPC Suppliers Council, which advises IPC on efforts that would help suppliers. Dan Feinberg and Gene Weiner, friends now in the IPC Hall of Fame, encouraged him to get involved with the this council.
At that time, IPC didn't monitor process consumables, so vendors had to guess what was going on in the market. Carano thought data collection would help the industry, and others seemed to agree. "We formed the Process Consumables Subcommittee. We now have a global means to measure the consumables markets," said Carano, who still chairs that committee.
He was also involved in the new technology program, which helped inform members about new trends. That effort reminded him of his early enthusiasm for TMRC meetings.
A couple years ago, he decided that the time might be right to restart TMRC. He told IPC CEO John Mitchell and Board Chairman Steve Pudles that he was passionate about the conference, so they asked him to chair a resurgent gathering.
"We held the first one last year, with discussions on Obamacare, which impacts small businesses, and speakers talked about environmental trends and technologies that impact our businesses. The big companies have people who can provide some of that information, but smaller companies don't have any easy way to get good information."
Carano rejuvenated TMRC and has been an active member of the IPC's Board of Directors for eight years and has every intention of remaining active on the Board.
"The people in the Hall of Fame are real pioneers," Carano said. "I'm humbled to be part of this group. A lot of people deserve this more than I do."
Carano also credits his employer OMG Electronic Chemicals for allowing him to participate in these activities. Finally, with all of his business travel and many commitments, there is quite a bit of time spent away from home. "I could not have accomplished any of this without the support of Karen, my wife and our two children, Michael Jr. and Kristina."