TopNotch Partners Ltd. was founded by Ivan Ho, a PCB industry veteran, who has had the unique opportunity to work closely with PCB manufacturers worldwide. Ivan spent most of his PCB Career in the USA, beginning as a co-op student working in Honeywell’s Multilayer plant in Brighton, Massachusetts in the late 70’s. He became a member of Photocircuits, Long Island New York, immediately after his graduation from Northeastern University. Since then, he has worked for suppliers such as W.R. Grace, Shipley and Ciba-Geigy holding various technical and marketing management positions developing new advanced processes and materials for the PCB industry.
In 1999, Ivan moved back to Hong Kong as Managing Director of Cimnet System’s Asia Pacific operations. He introduced and managed the process of bringing the company’s ERP system to market. In doing so, established offices in Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as China’s Shenzhen and Suzhou to serve the local PCB industry. Taking advantage of his Sino-American bicultural nature and his comprehensive knowledge of the PCB industry, he has established a unique view and understanding of the PCB industry in greater China.
Serving PCB fabricators most of his career, he has built friendships all over the world. However, in the last few years, he has seen more PCB companies in North America and Europe closing down as victims of the “China Pricing” phenomenon. He realized that the Chinese PCB fabricators lacked the ability to unleash the damage all by themselves. His research revealed these damages were largely caused by PCB brokers/agents and aggressive OEMs going off-shore to source directly. This trend is destructive to the industry, as a healthy PCB supplier base in every region is beneficial for the entire electronic industry.Early in 2003, in recognition of this trend, Ivan started helping a few North American PCB fabricators to source volume production in China in order to stay competitive against aggressive off-shore pricing. He gradually recognized that the fabricators of the East and West should work closer together in order to better serve the end-customer—Western fabricators can support the local OEMs more effectively with their technical service, prototyping and QTA, while their Eastern partners focus on providing quality cost effective volume production. This translates into better service for the end customer, a win-win-win situation for all!
TopNotch was created to provide a platform to our fellow PCB fabricators to help establish offshore partners to better serve their end-customers. We believe in efficiency and eliminate non value-added steps in the procurement process. To learn more see our TopNotch Missions