Tony O’Gorman was a long-time contributor and supporter of APEC. Starting with publishing papers at APEC he became an APEC committee member and was to serve as the APEC 2025 Conference Chair.
APEC is sorry to announce that in May 2024, Tony passed away after an extended fight with cancer. The APEC community lost a good friend and our APEC 2025 Conference Chair.
After graduating from University College Cork in Ireland with a Bachelor of Engineering, Tony moved to Minnesota, earning a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering with a focus on Power Electronics. He later returned to “the U” and earned his Ph.D. combining his passions of power electronics and digital control of electric machines. While in Minnesota, he met and married his wife, Diane. Both of their children pursued engineering careers and their daughter, Bridget, also serves on the APEC Organizing Committee.

Tony’s career in Power Electronics took him from Onan Corporation (later acquired by Cummins) to Motorola in Illinois, before becoming a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Continental Automotive Systems. Most recently, Tony was Owner and Principal at PESC Inc.
He complemented his professional life with a love for running, cycling, brewing his own beer, humor, and his native Cork.
Tony had a long involvement with APEC. In addition to publishing at the conference, he served as Industry Session Co-Chair from 2013 to 2022. During his time as Industry Session Co-Chair, this component of the conference grew considerably and now attracts audiences as large as the original Technical Sessions. He then joined the Conference Chair track representing IEEE IAS as Assistant Program Chair in 2023, Program Chair in 2024 and briefly took the reins as 2025 General Chair before his health took a rapid turn for the worse.
Tony’s sense of humor will be a lasting memory. He told great stories and many jokes, all reinforced by a keen sense of observation. While the “occasional” one bombed, that was fine. He had many more in reserve.
Organizing a conference as large APEC involves many – often long – meetings. Tony’s participation made many of these meetings more entertaining than your average engineering meeting. That same sense of humor could occasionally sidetrack agendas. Prior to one of his last APEC Committee meetings, the steering committee chair published an agenda with the note “we should be able to wrap this up in an hour if Tony behaves.”
One of Tony’s plans for 2025 was to elevate the status of the Dialog sessions and we will honor his legacy by holding a special Dialog session on Monday, March 17th which coincidentally is Saint Patrick’s Day. We miss Tony very much and we will honor his memory and legacy by making APEC 2025 a huge success.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
Conor Quinn