The International William J. Conroy Standards Professional Award recognizes an individual from the technical community who has shown exceptional leadership in the development or implementation of Product Data Exchange standards.

The Award was established by the US Product Data Association (US PRO) Board of Directors in honor of Bill Conroy. Bill provided notable leadership to the standards community throughout a professional career that included serving as Chairman of the IGES/PDES Organization, Director for the National Initiative for Product Data Exchange, and Chairman of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group (US TAG) for TC184/SC4.

The Award was presented once each year at an ISO TC184/SC4 meeting, and as US PRO ended its many years of work to develop and support the product data standards needed by industry in the U.S., its Board of Directors chose to pass the responsibility of running the competition for the Conroy Award to PDES, Inc. They felt that the international basis of PDES, Inc. membership and its long-standing participation in the ISO 10303 standards community gave that group a good foundation for evaluating the importance of individuals’ contributions to development of STEP standards. The Board also felt that PDES, Inc. could be impartial in selecting a winner from among the many nominations that are generated by each competition.  Please see the PDES, Inc. website for more information.

Criteria by which nominations for this award are evaluated:

Leadership - Provided clear project management or technical leadership critical to the success of standards development and/or projects

Broad Influence and Contribution to Standards Development - Influenced either national or worldwide acceptance of the results (either standards development or deployment)

Contribution - Recognized as a key contributor to the success of standards by national and worldwide peers

Technical Expertise - Recognized as a key technical leader in a standards area or role by national and worldwide peers and management

Longevity - Worked in the standards area for a sustained period of time (greater than 2 years)

Commitment/Dedication - Invested significant time and energy into the successful completion of standards activities; worked vigorously to resolve technical or other issues to move the standards work ahead

Project Management - Demonstrated excellent project management skills in managing critical standards activities and/or projects

Peer Recognition - Recognized by national and worldwide peers and management as critical to the success of standard projects and/or documents

Past winners of the International William J. Conroy Standards Professional Award are:

1997    Ms. Mary Mitchell, National Institute of Standards and Technology (USA)

1998    Mr. Terry Sieveking, The Boeing Company (USA)

1998    Mr. Greg Paul, Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems (USA)

1999    Mr. Nigel Shaw, Eurostep, Ltd. (United Kingdom)

1999    Mr. Juergen Morhmann, debis Systemhaus GmbH (Germany)

2000    Mr. Larry McKee, IBM (USA)

2000    Mr. Jim Mays, NAVSEA (USA)

2001    Mr. Yoshiaki Ishikawa, Ishilawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (Japan)

2002    Ms. Carol Tierney, General Dynamics Land Systems (USA)

2003    Mr. Ricardo Goncalves, UNINOVA (Portugal)

2003    Mr. Mark Palmer, National Institute of Standards and Technology (USA)

2004    Mr. Ray Goult, LMR Systems (United Kingdom)   

2005    Mr. Burton Gischner, Electric Boat Corporation (USA)

2005    Ms. Maria José Nuñez Ariño, AIDIMA Instituto Tecnologico (Spain)

2006    Mr. Keith Hunten, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company (USA)

2007    To be announced on October 29, 2007 at the ISO TC184/SC4 meeting in Dallas, Texas, USA