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UP Media Group Inc. (UPMG, Atlanta, GA) has announced the final schedule of events for the thirteenth annual PCB Design Conference West (PCB West). The West Coast conference and exhibition for PCB engineering, design and manufacture professionals will be held March 16-18 in San Jose, CA.

"This year, we've kicked things up a few notches," said UPMG president Pete Waddell. "The complete Professional Development and Technical Conference program boasts a terrific selection of more than 35 courses--over half of which are new to PCB West. Plus, attendees of the full-day tutorials and two-day Design Excellence Curriculum (DEC) courses that make up our new Professional Development Certificate Program will each receive certificates of completion following the show. I'm also pleased to announce that we've added a new low-cost conference package, the Lecture and Workshop Package, which is one of the best bargains we've ever offered at a PCB Design Conference."

The PCB West three-day Technical Conference takes place March 16-17 and includes 27 short courses. The Technical Conference is bracketed by 10 Professional Development Certificate courses: six full-day tutorials and four two-day DEC courses.

Dr. Walden C. Rhines, CEO of Mentor Graphics Corp., will give his keynote address, "Breaking the PCB Design Process," to kick-off the conference on March 16. The exhibition will begin immediately following the keynote. Three special events will also take place back-to-back on March 16: the Opening Night Reception, book signings and the Pot O'Gold Party and Giveaway at the headquarters hotel, the Fairmont San Jose.

Registration for the two-day exhibition and most special events is free.

UPMG publishes Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture and Circuits Assembly, and produces PCB Design Conference West and PCB Design Conference East in the Boston, MA, area. UPMG also hosts the PCB Design Conference Road Series of courses in cities throughout the U.S.

Celestica Inc. (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider, has announced that Eugene V. Polistuk, chairman and chief executive officer, has decided to retire, effective immediately.

Polistuk has led the company since its establishment in 1994, when Celestica was established as a standalone subsidiary of IBM. Onex Corp. acquired Celestica in 1996 and the company subsequently went public in 1998.

The Board of Directors understands and accepts Polistuk's decision to retire and appreciates the contribution he has made to Celestica's success.

"I believe the 'tech storm' is over and Celestica is very well positioned to share in the outsourcing trend that is gaining considerable momentum as end markets show positive signs of recovery," said Eugene Polistuk. "At this juncture, I feel it is time for me to pass the leadership of Celestica on to new and very capable hands so that I may re-focus my priorities on family and personal interests."

Robert L. Crandall, who has been a director of the company since 1998, has been appointed to the position of chairman of the board. The board has established a search committee to select a replacement for Polistuk. Candidates from both within and outside the company will be considered.

In the interim, Stephen W. Delaney has been appointed chief executive officer. Delaney has been with Celestica since 2001, most recently as president of Americas operations. Prior to joining Celestica, Delaney held executive and senior management roles in operations at Visteon Automotive Systems, AlliedSignal's electronic systems business, Ford's electronics division and IBM's telecommunications division.

J. Marvin MaGee will remain in his current position as president and chief operating officer, Anthony P. Puppi will continue as executive vice president and chief financial officer and R. Thomas Tropea will remain vice chair, worldwide marketing and business development.

The company also announced financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2003. For the fourth quarter, revenue was $1,915 million, up 17% sequentially from the third quarter of this year. Net loss for the quarter was $165 million or ($0.80) per share, which includes a $106 million charge associated with the company's non-cash impairment of long-lived assets and previously announced restructuring activities. This compares to a net loss of $435 million or ($1.90) per share for the same period last year.

Adjusted net earnings was a loss of $4 million or ($0.04) per share, compared to earnings of $39 million or $0.15 per share for the same period last year. The results compare with the company's guidance for the fourth quarter, which was announced on Oct. 23, 2003, for revenue of $1.70 - $1.85 billion and adjusted net loss per share of ($0.01) to ($0.09).

For the fiscal year, revenue was $6,735 million compared to $8,272 million last year. Net loss was $266 million or ($1.22) per share up from a net loss of $445 million or ($1.98) per share in 2002. Adjusted net loss for 2003 was $7 million or ($0.11) per share compared to adjusted net earnings of $222 million or $0.87 per share last year.

www.celestica.com

Karl Pfluke has been promoted to the position of market development specialist at the Indium Corp. of America (Utica, NY).

Pfluke, a degreed Manufacturing Engineering Technologist, is certified as both a Powder Metallurgy Technologist with MPIF and a Process Engineer with the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN). He is an active member of the IPC Solder Alloy Standards Development Group and has presented numerous technical papers.

Pfluke has worked at Indium for three years as a technical support engineer and has experience with the full range of interconnect materials and processes. He will remain based at the company¹s corporate headquarters in New York.

Indium Corp. is supplier of electronics assembly materials, including solder pastes, solder preforms, fluxes, lead-free solder alloys, underfill materials and die-attach materials. Factories are located in North America, Europe and Asia.

www.indium.com

AVX Corp. (Myrtle Beach, SC), a manufacturer of electronic passive components, has landed on Mars. The company announced their contribution to the Mars exploration rover, Spirit, and its twin rover, Opportunity, that successfully drove onto Martian soil last weekend. AVX supplied their CYR20 glass-dielectric capacitors in the mission critical rover lift actuator (RLA) and lander petal actuator (LPA) circuits. AVX has a long-standing relationship with NASA's space programs and has supplied passive components for many missions over the past 20 years.

The fused monolithic construction of the capacitors provide selectrical performance, environmental immunity, stability and retraceability, making them ideal for mission critical applications. The devices are designed to withstand extremely high and low temperatures and exposure to radiation.

The capacitors used in the rover played a vital role in the RLA and LPA electronics. The circuits enable the lander to open and adjust its petals and enable the lift mechanism to raise the rover so its wheels can be deployed to drive onto Martian terrain.

www.avxcorp.com

Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-CALTECH.

DEK (Flemington, NJ), a high accuracy mass imaging solutions provider, has announced representative changes in the Pacific Northwest and Southern California regions. DEK's offerings have expanded over the last two years and this growth has resulted in the need for a change in representation in a few select regions.

In the Pacific Northwest, DEK will now be represented by Systems Specialists Inc., an industry leader and representative for many major brands. The 27-year old organization prides itself on superior customer service and technical support and, in their new relationship, will represent DEK in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

DEK has also announced a representative change in Southern California. Competitive Edge Manufacturing Equipment (CEME) will now represent DEK's complete product line in this territory. CEME will represent DEK in the Southern California counties of San Louis Obispo, Kern, San Bernadino, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial and in Baja, Mexico.

www.dek.com

www.systemsspecialistsinc.com

www.ceme.net

Speedline Technologies Inc. (Franklin, MA) has manufactured and shipped its 100th CAMALOT XyflexPro dispensing system. The dispenser was purchased by Mektec Manufacturing Corp. of Thailand.

Mektec produces flexible printed circuit boards (PCBs) for computers, cameras, printers and mobile phones. The company will use the dispenser for flip chip underfill on flexible PCBs. With this purchase, Mektec operates 15 of the new dispensers, becoming the second largest XyflexPro installation in the world.

CAMALOT equipment provides new approaches to surface-mount and component protection. The benchtop, stand-alone and in-line systems dispense solder paste, conductive adhesives, encapsulants and flip chip underfill. The dispensing system has a calibration-free linear gantry drive system, small footprint and many easy-to-add options. The equipment handles surface-mount technology and semiconductor production applications.