John Kovacik, Principal Engineer, is UL’s Primary Designated Engineer (PDE) for industrial control equipment; components and assemblies including control panels and industrial machinery. His primary responsibilities are driving consistency, integrity and engineering quality in the establishment and application of UL product certification requirements. John’s 45-year career with UL includes many years of experience with codes and standards. He represents UL on numerous technical committees covering a broad range of subjects for NFPA, NEMA and the IEC. He is UL’s principal member on the National Electrical Code (NEC®) Correlating Committee and is responsible for coordinating UL's participation in NEC activities. He is also a member of NEC Code Panels 12 and 13. John is also UL’s principal member on the NFPA 79 Committee for Industrial Machinery and the NFPA 20 Committee for Stationary Fire Pumps. He serves as the Technical Advisor for the U.S. National Committee Technical Advisory Group for IEC Subcommittee 121A. John has received the IEC 1906 Award, the NFPA Committee Service Award, the NFPA Richard G. Biermann Award and is an NFPA Life Member.

Ken Hackworth has more than 25 years of experience in industrial controls and functional safety systems and is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in the State of Ohio, a certified Functional Safety Engineer and a member of the American Society of Safety Professionals. Ken is a participating sub-committee member of ANSI B11.19 and ANSI B11.26 safety standards. Ken is experienced and certified in U.S. and International safety standards, including OSHA, ANSI, NFPA, RIA and ISO/EN safety standards and specializes in machine safety engineering and compliance consulting for industrial clients in the United States.