Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

LONDON, Oct. 7 -- Cookson Group plc today promoted Steve Corbett to chief executive of its Electronics division, replacing Ray Sharpe, who left the company last summer. The company also announced a shakeup in its laminates division.

Corbett was chief executive of Enthone, Cookson's successful chemistries division. He reports to Nick Salmon, chief executive of Cookson Group.

Corbett will oversee Enthone (the most profitable of the Cookson Electronics' business sectors), the Assembly Materials divisional head office and R&D.

Cookson's laminates group, known familiarly as Polyclad Technologies, will continue to report to Salmon. Polyclad is in the midst of a restructuring program, Cookson said.

Corbett joined Cookson Electronics in 1990 and has held a number of senior positions within the Assembly Materials and Chemistry businesses. He has been Chief Executive of Enthone since 2002.

Polyclad, meanwhile, continues to recover from the effects of the global downturn but has returned to profitability, according to Cookson. The division will continue to report to Salmon for the near term.

Joe Santolucito, chief executive of Polyclad, is leaving the company. Cookson named Rick Richesin, Polyclad's COO, as his successor. Richesin joined Polyclad in 1985 and spent six years as managing director of Polyclad Asia in China and Hong Kong.

In a statement, Nick Salmon said Corbett's "broad ranging experience of our markets and businesses, including his firsthand knowledge of Asia-Pacific, will be invaluable in driving the division forward."

HONG KONG, Oct. 12 -- Kingboard Chemical Holdings Ltd. plans to seek a majority stake in Elec & Eltek International Holdings, Dow Jones reported today.

Kingboard, which makes PCBs and laminates, currently owns 27.7% of Elec & Eltek International Holdings. If it succeeds in gaining a majority share in the company, Kingboard will then offer to buy the firm's Singapore-listed Elec & Eltek International Co. Ltd.

Elec & Eltek currently provides boards to Intel and IBM.

Kingboard said the deal will enhance the economies of scale of its PCB as the two companies' business and customers are complementary, Dow Jones reported.

ANAHEIM, CA, Oct. 8, 2004 -- DDi Corp. will lay off up to 175 employees at its Milpitas, CA, manufacturing facility and take cash charges of $1 million as it attempts to lower its costs. The losses will be partially offset by the expected addition of a small number of employees across DDi's other facilities, bringing the total staff reduction to approximately 7% of DDi's worldwide workforce.

Some orders will be moved to DDi facilities in Toronto and Virginia, taking advantage of those plants' lower production costs, said Bruce McMaster, DDi's CEO.

Following the restructuring, the company will continue to employ more than 1,800 people. As a result of the workforce reduction, DDi expects a cash restructuring charge of approximately $1 million to be incurred in the fourth quarter of 2004 and to realize annualized cost savings of between $6 and $7 million.

KNOXVILLE, TN, Oct. 18 - SMTC Corp. will supply electronics manufacturing services and logistics services to Radio Systems Corp. under a new long-term agreement, the companies jointly said today.

Terms of the deal were not announced.

SMTC will supply engineering, printed circuit board and final product assembly services starting in the current quarter with volumes ramping in 2005.

CLINTON, NY, Oct. 18 -- Bobet Corp. will service and sell Indium Corp. of America's complete line of assembly products as part of a new supply deal, the companies said today.

Bobet, which was founded in 1997, will handle the greater Arizona area, Indium said in a press release.

MILPITAS, CA, Oct. 18 -- Solectron Corp. has named Matti Virtanen senior vice president and president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He joined the company Oct. 4.

Virtanen will coordinate efforts to expand the company's business and ensure customer satisfaction. He reports to Marty Neese, executive vice president of worldwide sales and account management.

Virtanen has experience at Nokia, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, where his responsibilities included developing and executing international go-to-market strategies, building senior-level customer relationships, running services and hardware businesses and developing brand strategies.

He has a master's in computer science, business management and HVAC from the Helsinki University of Technology.