Get to Know the IEEE Board of Directors

The IEEE Board of Directors shapes the future direction of IEEE and is committed to ensuring IEEE remains a strong and vibrant organization—serving the needs of its members and the engineering and technology community worldwide while fulfilling the IEEE mission of advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

This article features IEEE Board of Directors members Bala S. Prasanna, Stefano Bregni, Charles M. Jackson, and H. Alan Mantooth.

IEEE Senior Member Bala S. Prasanna

Director, Region 1: Northeastern U.S.

  Lubin Studios

Prasanna brings more than 35 years of academic and corporate experience in telecommunications, computer science, and digital transformation to his current roles. In the academic realm, he has served as assistant professor of computer science at the State University of New York in Oswego and taught C and C++ programming at Morgan State University, in Baltimore.

His corporate career has included influential roles in the telecom industry, where he specialized in the design, development, and deployment of network management systems. Throughout his career, he has been dedicated to mentorship, effective communication, and leadership development.

Prasanna holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics as well as a master’s degree in mathematics from Bangalore University, in India. He also earned a master’s degree in computer science from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

He has held top leadership positions in IEEE for more than 25 years, including serving on the IEEE-USA board of directors as secretary/treasurer. He also served on the IEEE Region 1 executive committee and board of governors and was the regional coordinator for Student Professional Awareness programs. He is actively involved with IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu, the honor society of IEEE.

Prasanna is passionate about IEEE’s humanitarian initiatives, especially the IEEE MOVE program, which provides communities with power and communications capabilities in areas affected by widespread outages due to natural disasters.

He received an IEEE Third Millennium Award, which recognized his outstanding contributions to the IEEE and his field.

Prasanna considers his efforts to mentor and inspire next-generation leaders to be his greatest accomplishment. He remains committed to professional growth, community service, advocacy of impactful programs, and technological advancement.

IEEE Senior Member Stefano Bregni

Director, Division III

  Stefano Bregni

Since 1999, Bregni has been a professor of telecommunications networks within the electronics, information, and bioengineering department at Politecnico di Milano, in Italy, where he also earned his master of science degree in electronics engineering.

His research activity has been mainly focused on network synchronization and Internet traffic characterization. Network synchronization deals with the distribution of time and frequency over a network of clocks by using communication links among them. The goal is to make network elements operate synchronously. It has a direct impact on telecommunications operators and determines the quality of services including transmission systems and networks for switching, computers, and mobile services.

He contributed to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)/International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) standards on network synchronization. He wrote Synchronization of Digital Telecommunications Networks. As an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, he presented on synchronization concepts in academia and industry.

Bregni innovated clock characterization and measurement methodologies, redefined standard measures, and advanced technical concepts throughout academia and industry worldwide within the IEEE Communications Society. He also applied measures originally conceived for frequency stability characterization to the analysis of Internet traffic in communications networks to enable more realistic system design.

He has been an active IEEE volunteer for more than 25 years and has held a number of top leadership positions in IEEE ComSoc conferences, including serving as technical program co-chair of flagship conferences IEEE International Conference on Communications 2016 (ICC 2016) and IEEE Globecom 2023. He is a co-founder of the IEEE ComSoc Student Competition, which is the main ComSoc program awarding young talents. He has been editor in chief of the society’s Global Communications Newsletter since 2007.

Bregni has been recognized for his volunteerism with the 2019 IEEE ComSoc/KICS Exemplary Global Service Award and the 2014 IEEE ComSoc Hal Sobol Award for Exemplary Service to Meetings and Conferences. He is committed to advancing technology and mentoring next-generation talent in the field.

IEEE Life Fellow Charles M. Jackson

Director, Division IV

  Tammy Lyle/MTT Society

Jackson’s work has helped advance many space applications, including communications, radar, and Earth observation. Before he retired in May 2021, he focused on specialized microwave and millimeter-wave technologies. He worked at several communication companies, making digital receivers and driving advancements in the field of phased array radar. He also worked in the aerospace industry, assisting with space-based programs, supporting technical development, and testing the strength and security of physical and information-based assets against organizational threats.

Jackson is an active member of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation and IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques (MTT-S) societies and has been published in the IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control journal. He is a past chair of the IEEE Conferences Committee, and he held numerous positions in Region 6 (Western U.S.) and its MTT-S chapter. He holds five patents and has published more than 30 articles, including pieces featured in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library.

While recovering from cancer, Jackson pursued his lifelong dream of designing and measuring the acoustical properties of woodwind instruments, particularly Renaissance-era flutes, crumhorns, and cornets. He now uses 3D printing to make the instruments and discusses his work in his Microwaves and Woodwinds presentation as a member of the MTT-S Speakers Bureau. His work has helped advance the field’s understanding of acoustical instrument design.

IEEE Fellow H. Alan Mantooth

Director, Division II

  University of Arkansas

Throughout his career, Mantooth has been dedicated to enabling greater efficiencies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the energy-generation and transportation industries.

He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Arkansas, as well as a doctoral degree from Georgia Tech.

Mantooth currently leads the UA Power Group, a multidisciplinary team of researchers working on next-generation electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, grid infrastructure, and cybersecurity. The UA Power Group received an R&D Magazine R&D 100 Award for its 250-kilowatt all-silicon carbide motor drive for hybrid aircraft.

Among his responsibilities at the power group, Mantooth oversees facilities for semiconductor manufacturing, power electronics packaging, and medium voltage testing. He specializes in power electronics for grid modernization, vehicle electrification, and extreme environment electronics in a range of applications. His areas of focus include semiconductor device design and modeling, analog and mixed-signal IC design, CAD methods, power electronics design and packaging, and cybersecurity. The devices, circuits, and systems help improve power grid performance and protect the grid from cyberattacks. They also have commercial applications for electrified aircraft, passenger vehicles, and heavy equipment.

A longtime member and past president of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, Mantooth received the society’s Modeling and Control Technical Achievement Award and the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics Prize Paper Award, both in 2019.

Mantooth, named a Tech Titan of 2021 by Arkansas Money & Politics magazine, is an inductee of the Arkansas Academy of Electrical Engineering.