Well, good morning, Steve. It's great to be here. So I'm here talking today to Steve Hill of technet, who is a GSA member company. We're really excited to have you guys. You help you really help fill out the value chain. So we appreciate that. So I thought I would start just telling you a little bit about GSA and how we got started, because I think it's important to understand our overall viewpoint of the industry. It helps to understand where we started. So we started the GSA in 1994 as we saw a big shift underway in the industry, which was the rise of the fabulous business model. So that lowered the barrier to entry and allowed companies to focus on designing differentiated products for emerging markets. This at the time, it was a very controversial model, but it became widely accepted and proven to be the more preferred and most profitable and innovative model. Once our advocacy had been accomplished, we transitioned to focus on global collaboration and to encompass the type semiconductor ecosystem. And that's where we are today. So today GSA is where leaders meet and we represent that expanded ecosystem that includes the traditional semiconductor companies, but also software solutions, systems and services. So of course, companies that you would know of like media tech or Nvidia or qualcomm, those are the fabulous companies, but also idms like analog and Intel. But as more interesting is the non-traditional semiconductor companies that are doing their own hardware like Microsoft and Facebook, Google, Amazon, Tesla. And so it's the goal of having all of the companies that intersect this industry to be part of it. And I would just emphasize the G in gsa, which is global. So we are a global organization. We have a global footprint, a global board of directors and a global mission. And we really believe that global collaborative model, where companies share the innovation burden, really enables the industry to achieve the necessary efficiency and profitability, to have adequate R&D to propel the industry forward. So that's how we see things. And historically, value creation has been achieved through this global collaboration and open standards, equal access to markets and protection of intellectual property. So that's the GSA in a nutshell. Hi, Jody. This is Steve, Steve Hill. I'm the president of technet semiconductor and also lean tech, both of which are part of end pro industries. And end pro has been investing in semiconductor really consistently over the last 10 years. And we're excited about where we are. And we're also excited and happy to be a member of GSA. Gsa's helped us quite a bit as far as networking and connecting us with different companies around the world and really supporting our direction to grow our footprint in semiconductor globally, but also in the United States as well. So maybe, Jodie, we should talk a little bit about the Chips Act and what its passing means to increased offshoring for semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. And your view about that? OK well, the chip stack is passed after all this time. So it's I know that a lot of companies are very happy with that. And we've been sort of on the sidelines on this. Steve, as you may know, since we're a global industry, we think it's important to make sure that we're representing our member companies and China and Taiwan and Europe and the US. But we also understand that the world is moving to more regional ecosystems and there's no reason why the US should not be in that game. So definitely in order for there to be semiconductor manufacturing in the us, the US government has to step in. They have to fill that void in order to attract companies here because the US just is not as attractive as countries like Taiwan who have been doing this for a long time. And so the chips act, as you know, about 39 billion of that will subsidize companies to expand or build new semiconductor manufacturing. So whether or not that that's a US company like Intel that is building in Ohio or companies like Wolf speed, who has recently announced or companies like micron so doing their own internal development. And then it will also attract companies like TSMC, which is now building manufacturing in Arizona or companies like Sam. Some that are now building in Texas. So those companies, of course, are foundries and so they'll come in and support us fabless companies again, like the Qualcomm's and NVIDIA's of the world. And so I think that those companies, those companies both on the customer side, as well as the foundries, think that this is a necessary move in order to if it is important to have semiconductor manufacturing in the us, which again, most people agree that it is. Yeah, I think that's a great point is that the CHIPS Act is not specific to US companies. It's for the key, key players in the industry. You know, companies like TSMC and Samsung are included. Not only Intel, globalfoundries, micron, wolf, speed will benefit. And I think the key thing for us at nypro is it's not just the chip manufacturers themselves, but it's really the full ecosystem because to build a semiconductor chip, you know, they're built at the wafer fabs, kind of the techie term. But, you know, there's so many pieces behind the scenes that are involved in the supply chain that are critical to building a chip, not only on legacy devices, but the leading edge devices. And that's where nypro really has made a big investment over time. We have facilities in Taiwan, Singapore, several facilities in the us, California, Boise, Idaho, Daytona beach, Florida. And we're involved and really focused on the leading edge devices, what we call sub 10 nanometer and even already qualified on 3 nanometer manufacturing, which is the cutting edge. There's only really a couple of companies globally that are participating there. And what we're looking to do in the US is open a new facility. It's not publicly announced, but we're in the process of closing on property in Arizona and we'll be bringing our leading edge technology that we've developed at our global sites, really to support US manufacturing and driving advanced node technology here in the United States. But doing that in support of our global partners, not just companies that are based in the us, but companies like TSMC, Samsung, others that are investing in the US. And we're really, really excited about the future. On a global stand standpoint, we continue to invest in other facilities globally, but here in the US it's a really, really exciting time to be in the semiconductor industry and we're excited to be a part of that and excited to work together with GSA to expand the semiconductor business globally going forward. Steve, I agree. I think that you guys play a critical role and I think I'm very excited for you. I think that you guys have done a great job. You've really lived up to the strategy that you set forth a number of years ago. And it is very important. I mean, the semiconductor industry is one of the most complex and complicated industries in the world. So it isn't just one, two, three, even 10 things. It's a number of things that have to go perfectly right. You guys play a role in that. I've heard that it's actually a quote from a TSMC engineer that said that manufacturing semiconductors is like shooting an arrow from Earth to hit an Apple on the moon. So it is a really complex industry. And so I think that having the players in one place and creating this little bubble is very important and it's what's worked in other countries. So I think that you guys are doing the right thing there. I would add that I do think it's the best time to be in the semiconductor industry. I've been in this industry for an awful long time and for years, really, our industry is underpinned the growth of a range of technologies that made life easier and more productive and improving the lives of people around the globe. But not so quietly. The semiconductor leaders really lamented how few appreciated their foundational technology with the staggering R&D costs and increasing complexity of the chips and the systems and the supporting software. But now I really think the world is paying attention and they really do understand that we are driving the $92 trillion world economy. Yeah, no doubt. Jodie, I fully agree. It's really amazing the amount of applications that some many semiconductor devices go in today. I mean, most people, when you mention semiconductors, they think about a laptop or a cell phone. But when you think about EVs and autonomous driving and you talk about the cloud, the clouds enabled by semiconductor devices, so high performance computing data centers, there's just so many applications for semiconductor devices. And I've been in the industry a long time as well. And if you'd asked me 25 years ago if I could ever envision that my refrigerator would have semiconductor devices in the fridge that are communicating with other communicating with a network and so forth. I would have I would have thought that was crazy. But it is it's just amazing what the next generation is going to see with semiconductor is truly an enabling technology. And it's really the future's tremendously bright. And the geographical expansion is not only happening in the us, but it's happening globally. And part of the reason is, is just pure demand. If you look at the latest statistics about semiconductor devices over the next six years, the market is projected to double and grow over $1,000,000,000,000 a year in annual revenue from less than $600 billion today. So I'm super excited about where we're headed. And super excited about where semiconductor can play for the next generation going forward. So I agree. I think that, you know, for us that have been in the industry for a long time, everything used to be used to be about PCs and then it was about PCs and cell phones. But you know, today with AI chips, the demand increasing for the adoption and AI in every industry, you know, voice recognition, object detection, medical and military. And then of course, the early adoption of quantum computing, 5G iot, it's really exciting that everything is happening simultaneously. And I think that I always point back to a quote and of course I'm going to mess it up, but a quote from Jensen Huang, the CEO of nvidia, that really talked about how this industry has always been limited by the number of people in the world. Right because how many people can buy a pc? How many people can buy a cell phone? But when you're talking about cloud and you're talking about a.I., there's really no physical limitations to how much that can grow. So that's pretty exciting. So just the pace of innovation is amazing. And I have to say, when your parents start understanding your industry, you know you've really made it. Yep parents and actually it's becoming a quote unquote destination industry again. Whereas I think for the last couple of decades, it's kind of been not as exciting for the younger generation. So it's good to see that tide turn a bit and people get excited about semi-conductors. So that's right. And, you know, we need that because if this industry is really going to grow to a trillion over the next number of years, trillion in revenue, we have to have a more developed workforce and we have to attract talent to this industry. We have to take advantage of this, of being really in the spotlight and, you know, get those kids that are at universities really focused on an engineering degree. And it's very hard to do that. But we really have to encourage them that at the end of the day, this is an amazing industry to be part of. And, you know, for again, ever since I've been in the industry, we've sort of ignored 50% of the population. So in other words, there's only the technical workforce and the semiconductor industry. Only 10% of it is made up by women. So there's a huge opportunity to attract women to this industry and show them how exciting it is, what a revolutionary industry, if they join the industry, that they really can design the solutions to many of the societal problems that are plaguing us. I mean, it's going to come from this industry, these solutions, the solutions to climate change, the solutions to endemic poverty. Really, the foundation of those changes are going to come from this industry. Pretty exciting. Yeah, it's a great point, Jodie. And you know, we're a big supporter of GSA and your efforts on diversity and specifically your women's Leadership Initiative. So maybe if you just want to share a little bit about that program on this podcast, I think that'd be great. You know, we just did a really amazing conference last week in Silicon Valley called wish so women in semiconductor hardware. So as a technical conference, it just so happened that all the White papers and all the technical discussions were by women. It was phenomenal. 300 women technology leaders in their own right coming together to inspire others to stay the course and stay in this industry. So our goal for this women's Leadership Initiative is first to attract the STEM focused women in universities to join this industry. So to kind of get our fair share. So they keep going to software industries and other opportunities. They really have many, many opportunities. But the kind of difference they can make in the world by joining this industry really has to be articulated to them. The second goal is to retain, develop and advance the women that are. So again, if you would have been at this event, Steve, you would have been amazed. So we may not have enough women in this industry, no doubt, but the women that we do have are phenomenal. I mean, we've attracted the best and brightest and the most resilient. You would have to be right to be only 10% of the whole industry after 50 years or 60 years of this industry. So I think that it's important that once women join, that they really do find a place here. And then the third is to make sure that female entrepreneurs in this industry are being supported and being highlighted and making sure that they have a platform and that they have a voice. And so those are our three objectives. We know that there are so many things to do, but that's really what we can do and can make an impact on right now. And we have just overall unanimous support from this industry about this initiative. People are excited. They want this to happen. And if nothing else, again, the industry knows that if it wants to hit that trillion, it's going to have to address this problem. And I think that's fantastic. And it's a fantastic program that you have. And I think one key point talent, attraction and retention in the semiconductor industry is critical to hitting the trillion. And, you know, for the CHIPS Act to be successful. And it's on many, many levels and diversity is a key part of that. We're reaching out to local community colleges here in Arizona, also the universities, because it's not just the engineers. It's the people who turn the wrenches and actually do the work as well. And these are skilled labor, not unskilled direct labor, but skilled labor. And there's a shortage of that in the US right now. So supporting those programs as critical as well. And infrastructure do play our part in the ecosystem there as well. Well, it's I mean, it's a super important point. I mean, before we started talking about bringing manufacturing back to the us, we already had a problem. Right? so imagine that we're going to have all these fabs operational in the US. It's going to take a huge effort and we have to work on exactly what you guys are doing with these community colleges and you know, we're your partner, Steve. So anything you need us to do, we've been actually. We're really led by our member companies. So if a company says, hey, we've got this program with UCLA or MIT or the University of Arizona, we want to be there to support you and make sure that you have the materials that you need, again, for the female side of things, but also just the overall enthusiasm about this industry and what we have to offer for careers. Well, Thank you, Jody. I really, really appreciate your time today. You've been fantastic partner to work with and a global leader in the semiconductor industry and really excited about our future and looking forward to working with GSA to really realize that vision of in the next 5 to six years, depending on when we get there. OK well, Thanks a lot, Steven. Again, it has been great working with you over the course of the last couple of years. I remember we got to see each other in may, and it was the first time after speaking to each other on the phone for two years. So it was great to actually finally meet face to face and we'll get to do it again here pretty soon. Yeah it's great to be getting back to normal, right? Yes all right. Thank you. Thank you.
