Jeff Shepard, founder of the Darnell Group, has been active in the power electronics industry for over 23 years. Prior to founding the Darnell Group in 1991, Mr. Shepard had a variety of extensive experiences in the power electronics industry including; Publisher of "Powertechniques Magazine," Marketing Manager for LH Research, co-founder of JETA Power Systems, Inc., author of a book titled "Power Supplies" published by Prentice-Hall and Senior Technology Editor of Power Electronics at "Electronic Engineering Times" newspaper. He gave an invited talk titled "Power Electronics Futures" during the Plenary Session of the 2004 IEEE APEC meeting. Mr. Shepard has chaired several continuing education seminars at the IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference including "Marketing Strategies and Techniques for the Power Electronics Industry" (1995), "Use of the World Wide Web in the Power Electronics Industry" (1997), and "Power Talk, the Very First APEC Call-in Radio Show" (1999). He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and has had dozens of papers and articles published on various power electronics topics. Complementing his extensive practical experience and technical education in Chemistry and Electrical Engineering, Mr. Shepard has a Masters Degree in Econometrics and Statistical Methods from the University of California.

Linnea Brush, Senior Research Analyst at Darnell Group, recently completed the second update of "Emerging Markets in Digital Power Electronics: Component, Converter, and System Level Opportunities." She has written studies for companies and government organizations that analyze the power factor correction market, the telecommunications power system market, automotive power electronics, portable battery packs, among others. Ms. Brush has over fifteen years of experience as a research analyst, technical writer and editor. She has designed surveys and written articles and reports on technical management for the aerospace industry, academic institutions, and hospitals. She has presented papers on "Trends in Digital System Power Management: Power Converter and System Demand Characteristics," "Automotive Power System Architecture Trends" and "Trends in Power Distribution" at IEEE and other industry conferences. Ms. Brush holds a B.A. from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and has published in several peer-reviewed journals.

Richard Ruiz, Research Analyst at Darnell Group, recently participated in updating the ninth edition of Darnell’s in-depth analysis of the dc-dc converter industry and is currently working on a new digital power report titled "Digital Power Electronics: Current Situation Analysis of OEM Applications, Converter & IC Product Development Trends and Competitive Strategies." His previous contributions at Darnell include participation in a variety of research projects including ac-dc power supplies, power factor correction, alternative energy sources, telecommunications power systems, ultra-low power and the portable power market. In addition Mr. Ruiz is a regular contributor to Darnell In Depth, EDN Power Technology Supplements and has delivered a number of presentations at several industry conferences, including "Power Electronics, the Driving Force behind the Distributed & Co-generation (DCG) market" and "Li-ion and Li-polymer Battery Pack Growth in North America and Asia: A Comparison." At the recent Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC) in Anaheim, California, Mr. Ruiz presented a paper titled "The Effect of Market Consolidation on the DC-DC converter Market." Prior to joining Darnell, he worked for over 12 years as an economic analyst covering the Information, Manufacturing and Financial Services sectors. Mr. Ruiz has extensive experience in economics, statistics and research in a number of industries, markets and technologies. He holds a B.A. in Economics from California State University at Long Beach with an emphasis in Econometrics and Industrial Organization.