Just seven months into her tenure as executive director for the Los Angeles/Santa Barbara Council of the American Electronics Association, JoElla Lapiana detects a renewed excitement and interest in the trade organization. Following a period of turnover in the director position, the Woodland Hills-based association has regained stability, moved into new quarters and is focusing on new initiatives. Lapiana said her goal is to make the association more of a community, where its member companies are engaged and active. The turnover in the local council’s director position could be seen as reflective of what has been going on with the technology industry as a whole with turnover is company leadership, Lapiana said. “I’m spending more time in front of them,” Lapiana said of the area members. “Maybe the old CEO knew who we were and what we did but the new one doesn’t.” AeA is the nation’s largest high-tech trade group with representation in 15 markets nationwide and offices in Belgium and China. It represents more than 3,000 companies with some 1.8 million employees. Nearly 120 tech companies of varying sizes, as well as venture capitalists and others make up the membership of the Los Angeles/Santa Barbara Council, which serves Southern California from Orange County to Ventura County and east to the California/Nevada border. The association’s rough road began two years ago with the abrupt departure of then- executive director Dave Wood. That began a period of instability in the position, first with then-Orange County Council Executive Director Phil Beaudoin filling in part time, followed by Randy Parsons taking the spot in June 2005 but lasting only several months. “It wasn’t a good match,” Lapiana said of why Parsons left. National changes Michael Leigh, the current chairman of the council’s executive committee, said he had no particular knowledge of the turnover in the L.A. Council but that a change in personnel was reflective in what was happening at the national level of the organization. But Lapiana, who formerly had been director of programs for the L.A. council, said not having a full-time executive director had no effect on the office or its mission. “With or without an executive director we knew what we needed to do,” Lapiana said. Gary Morais, a member of the association’s executive committee, said the group is lucky to have Lapiana in that she brings an entrepreneurial approach that had been missing. “They didn’t have the strength of that,” said Morais, chief executive officer and president of GPT3 in Santa Barbara. “It certainly is a plus.” The association is also launching new programs that will bring new blood to the group, Morais said. One new program starting this new month is a conference call between member companies and lobbying staff in Sacramento to get a dialogue going on policy issues up before state lawmakers. The association needs to bring the lobbying efforts to Southern California, which in the past we didn’t do, Lapiana said. “You have these technology companies seeing these issues RFID (radio frequency identification), e-waste, privacy discussed in Sacramento but these people feel they don’t have any control over what’s going on,” Lapiana said. “We want to tell them that they do.” Tackling competition Another aspect the local council is getting involved in is tackling the loss of competitive edge by American companies. The L.A. Council is establishing the Hands on Technology program that will have executives with member companies going into classrooms or arranging visits with fourth through eighth graders to see how technology is created and to bolster an interest in students to pursue science and math related career paths. “We’re trying to encourage parents to tell their kids it’s OK to be scientists and technologists,” Leigh said. “Not everyone can be a doctor or lawyer.” The gap between research and development should be addressed by promoting cooperation between commercial companies and universities, said Leigh, chief executive officer with Technology Marketforce, a company working with businesses on strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions.