In high school and before, Eddie Pavlu liked to tinker and indeed did frequent Radio Shack. So it was a given that he would get a degree in electrical engineering, which he did from Fairleigh Dickenson University in 1985. His EMC training began with a job at ITT Avionics during his senior year of college. On graduation, Eddie became a design engineer at Singer Kearfott where he continued to work on EMC issues. After two years, he took a position as Lead EMC Engineer for the Unisys Corporation in New Jersey. Here he not only tested for and addressed EMC issues, but also developed the EMC guidelines used throughout the company. During the same time, he completed his M.E.E.E. at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken (December 1988). With two degrees and seven years experience, it was time to head to sunny California. Eddie’s first position there as a senior EMC engineer focused testing and troubleshooting, but by 1991 was EMC Principle Engineer for Bay Networks in Santa Clara. While the position still entailed plenty of bench work, Eddie became more involved with the coordination of EMC support on multiple projects and interfaced with the development engineers, as well as EMC training programs. By the time he left Bay Networks in 1997, Eddie was EMC Group Manager and was taking on more of a managerial role. In 1997, Eddie accepted an executive management position with Elliott Laboratories in Silicon Valley. As he moved from Vice President of Engineering to Chief Operating Officer to President and CEO, hands-on EMC work was delegated to others. When Elliott Labs transitioned to NTS, Eddie remained part of the executive management team and is currently Vice President, responsible for the commercial and telecom market and operations at several NTS locations.
While there are certainly times when Eddie misses the lab, the EMC experience he brings to management is a great asset to his company. It gives him more influence in helping the public and customers understand the importance of sound EMC practices. Also, having been the one who tested products for both safety and functional compliance, he understands the value of recognizing and allowing for potential issues in the design phase. Despite having left the bench himself, he would encourage young engineers to go in to this quickly growing field. His best advice to them, like John’s, is to get all the hands-on training you can and find a mentor in the industry.
