Hall of Fame Spotlight Series: Highlighting Karen McConnell

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Editor’s note: Dan Feinberg continues his series on the Hall of Fame, spotlighting the achievements of past Hall of Fame members of the Global Electronics Association.

Many members who have contributed significantly to the Global Electronics Association (formerly IPC) and our industry have been awarded the Raymond E. Pritchard Hall of Fame (HOF) Award. Though many early HOF members have passed away and are not known to today’s Association membership, their contributions still resonate. This special series on Hall of Fame members provides a reminder of who was honored and why.

This Hall of Fame (HOF) spotlight features Karen McConnell

In 2021, Karen McConnell was awarded the Raymond E. Pritchard Hall of Fame award in recognition of her contributions to the Association and the electronics industry. As a senior staff member and CAD/CAM engineer at Northrop Grumman Enterprise Services, her primary responsibility was to develop a common, shared EDM (Electronic Document Management) library to support the electrical and PCB design tool initiatives across Northrop Grumman Mission Systems.

An active Global Electronics Association member and volunteer for over 30 years, Karen first got involved while working for Lockheed Martin, when one of her bosses presented at a meeting. She told Patty Goldman in a 2021 interview upon hearing of her HOF honor that she became engaged during “the GenCAM/ODB++ data wars of the 1990s,” and that “IPC decided to host the peace talks.” She recounted working closely with Dieter Bergman on the 2-10 and 2-16 committees. Lockheed Martin was very involved in standards creation and review. Karen recalled that it was a high priority, and feels fortunate that her current employer, Northrup Grumman, has remained supportive of her involvement.

Among her list of Association achievements, Karen received the President’s Award in 2013. At one time, she was the chair of nine committees, including the Technical Activities Executive Committee, the Technical Activities Executive Global Committee, and the IPC Design Community Leadership team. She has been a staunch advocate for new engineers, serving as one of the first mentors for the Association’s Emerging Engineer program.

When she was awarded her Hall of Fame trophy in 2021, John Mitchell said, “Karen’s contributions to IPC are extraordinary, and her passion for the industry and commitment to the growth of younger engineers moved them, as well as IPC (the Global Electronics Association) and the overall electronics industry, forward”. About her work with the Association, she has said, “Everybody I have met at IPC cares about the industry, cares that things are done correctly, and cares that it costs their company less.”

This article originally appeared in the April 2026 edition of I-Connect007 Magazine.