WASHINGTON (29 January 2007) -- John W. Meredith, P.E., who became IEEE-USA president on New Year’s Day, said he will devote his presidency to helping U.S. engineers cope with the impact of globalization.
"Our profession within the United States is in a continuing struggle to deal with the effects of global competition," said Meredith, a product development engineer with Agilent Technologies in Colorado Springs, Colo. "While the U.S. economy has shown improvement since the infamous dot-com bust of 2000-01, our national competitiveness in the high-tech sector is increasingly challenged."
Meredith will work closely with 2006 IEEE-USA President Ralph W. Wyndrum Jr. of Fair Haven, N.J., and IEEE-USA President-Elect Russell J. Lefevre of Redondo Beach, Calif. The three are committed to bolstering the career prospects of U.S. electrical and computer engineers in the face of global competition in high-tech industries.
"This competition was initially in manufacturing but is now moving more and more into design and development work," Meredith said. "Because labor rates are lower in many countries that compete with the United States, we are losing high-tech jobs. We must act strategically as a nation to improve U.S. competitiveness. This is necessary to preserve jobs for U.S. engineers and to maintain the standard of living that Americans have enjoyed for several generations."
Meredith defines competitiveness, as it relates to our nation, as a concerted drive to compete with other countries in selling our goods and services. While the United States has been the world’s leading high-tech incubator, other countries have made advances that challenge our position.
"My highest priority is to take steps to ensure the competitiveness of U.S. industry in our fields of interest," Meredith said. "This is a big challenge because developing countries are now competing in jobs that are higher up the high-tech ‘food chain.’"
Read more about Meredith’s 2007 vision for IEEE-USA at http://www.ieeeusa.org/communications/presidentscolumn/Meredith/jan07.html.
IEEE-USA is in year two of its strategic plan to address U.S. competitiveness. The organization will continue to work with Congress to enact comprehensive legislation promoting U.S. innovation and competitiveness. It will also recommend that Congress reform high-tech immigration and correct significant flaws in the H-1B guest worker program. The IEEE-USA Innovation Institute, which will begin this year, will promote innovation through training and mentoring tomorrow’s technology leaders. For more on IEEE-USA’s Innovation Initiative, go to http://www.innovation-institute.org/
Meredith is a registered professional engineer and a senior member of the IEEE. He is in his 27th year working for Agilent Technologies (formerly Hewlett-Packard) in various management and engineering positions. He has also worked for Honeywell (1974-79), American Microsystems (1972-74) and General Electric (1969-72). He has been an adjunct professor of electrical engineering at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) for a number of years.
Meredith, a native of Fayetteville, Ark., graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1965 with a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering. He added a master’s in the field from UCCS in 1981. He served in the United States Navy, first as an assistant electronics officer aboard the USS Intrepid (1965-67), and then as a projects officer in the Navy’s Electronics Laboratory (1967-69).
Meredith began his IEEE volunteer career in college and began doing section work in 1972. He has been a member of the Educational Activities Board (2003); the Regional Activities Board (2004-05); the IEEE-USA Operating Committee (2004); and the Membership Development Committee (2002). He joined the IEEE and IEEE-USA Board of Directors when he served as Region 5 director in 2004-05. He was honored with an IEEE Millennium Award in 2000; an Educational Activities Board Meritorious Service Citation in 1995; and a Regional Professional Leadership award in 1991. He was named Region 5’s Outstanding Member in 1998.
An author of numerous technical and professional papers, Meredith’s interests include high-speed analog integrated circuit design and lifelong learning. He and his wife, Lorraine, will celebrate their 38th wedding anniversary on 19 April. They have two children, Joseph and Allison, and two grandchildren, Courtney and Tiffany.
IEEE-USA advances the public good and promotes the careers and public policy interests of more than 220,000 engineers, scientists and allied professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE. IEEE-USA is part of the IEEE, the world's largest technical professional society with 360,000 members in 150 countries. See http://www.ieeeusa.org.