I first met Steve Wainwright at National Electronics Weeks in London where he was giving a presentation on the ‘Challenges for the Future Ultra Portable System’, apt for a man who likes a challenge and is now helping to run a business that has, along with most of the electronics industry, faced a very challenging year and half.

“From my perspective we’ve begun to see a recovery in both the US and in Europe over the last few months, but it’s been a tough eighteen months. The US went into recession and was soon followed by Europe and while growth didn’t so much as vanish in Asia, but rather slowed, Japan has and remains a very challenging market for us and I’m sure for most other companies.”

Based in the heart of Basingstoke, Hampshire, Link Microtek is a small, independent and privately owned UK company specialising in the manufacture and distribution of RF, Microwave and Optical components and instrumentation.

The Managing Director is Steve Cranstone, one of the founders of the company back in 1995. Open and pragmatic: “I don’t know what an MD does to be honest. Whatever it is I’m not sure I’m doing it but it seems to be working,” he and the rest of the senior management team have been together for nearly 15 years.

It goes without saying that the financial turmoil of the last 18 months has been a difficult and worrying time for distributors and manufacturers alike but for some smaller, niche distributors more manufacturers are looking to use them in preference to large broad liners. Why? Because they are able to offer more marketing and sales support but also, and this is crucial, those with an in-house engineering team are able to offer design assistance to customers looking to speed up the design process and tailor solutions to fit specific solutions.

Cambridge is home to a host of innovative companies one of which is Cambridge Mechatronics (CML). This company licenses proprietary IP for actuator devices which are suitable for a wide range of market applications and its technology has been used in applications as varied as miniature auto-focus (AF) and zoom camera technology and loudspeakers for audio and TV systems.

The company has been around for over ten years, it changed its name in August 2008 from 1 Ltd to Cambridge Mechatronics, but in fairness it can be said that it has only recently begun to find its stride and establish itself as a leading player in the actuator market.

Based just a few minutes drive from Gatwick Airport is Roband Electronics an independent British company that specialises in the design, development and manufacture of low and high voltage power supply systems that cover a wide range of vertical markets.

Established in 1956 the company has been based at its current location, Charwood, since 1963 and it’s in these offices that I got to meet with Andrew Gold, the company’s managing director.

In a tough economic environment, however, Roband is well placed.

When I met with Phil Inness, the managing director of Axis Electronics and chair of Intellect’s EMSA (Electronics Manufacturing Services Association) involved in contract electronic manufacturing, we talked at length about his work at Intellect and about some of the key barriers to growth facing manufacturing in the UK. His comments were made before the wave of negative economic sentiment that now seems to be the ‘norm’ for any discussion on the state of the UK economy – Alistair Darling’s comment that these were ‘arguably the worst’ economic conditions for 60 years adding to a growing sense of gloom.

“Most of the really big problems today can be solved by engineering.” John East, Chairman, President and CEO of FPGA company Actel believes in that as a credo, and does what he can to push this belief along. One can imagine John as the experienced sheriff with the mission to bring law and order to the frontier: he certainly looks the part, tall, slim and on occasion, laconic. His frontier is not the nineteenth century American West but the whole world, and his weapons of choice are not the Colt Peacemaker revolver and the Winchester rifle, but engineering skills, which he wants to bring to bear on the three major problems he sees facing America, and the world, today. (John puts America first – he is a strong patriot.) These problems are green/energy issues, the economy and the on-going ‘war’ in Iraq.

I first met Dr Andreas Wild, until recently the Director of Freescale Semiconductors’ research centre at Crolles in France, in London in the summer of 2008. One of the pioneers of the Crolles2 Alliance, the co-operative research and development programme with STMicroelectronics and NXP he’s fluent in five languages, author or 22 patents and over 50 technical papers. But despite having a brain the size of a small planet I found him approachable, talkative and down-to-earth - great company in fact.

For this interview we met in the InterContinental Le Grand hotel in Paris. Located amid the city’s shopping, theatre and banking districts it has a very cosmopolitan feel, ideal for meeting this very cosmopolitan man.

With a name like Magnifico it was just a matter of time before I had to arrange an interview with Intersil’s vice president of Sales Europe, Roberto Magnifico.

I first met him on a press trip to Munich in the run-up to electronica last year. For Intersil the trade fair provided the perfect platform to highlight recent strategic acquisitions as well as to display a range of new light sensor offerings, high speed data converters and automotive infotainment solutions.

When I interviewed Magnifico it was a month or so after the show and took place back in London. Charming, softly spoken and dressed impeccably in a tailored grey suit, he is your archetypal Italian.

Indro Mukejee is Chief Executive Officer of C-MAC MicroTechnology, a UK manufacturer of high reliability microelectronics. He joined the company three years ago after eight years at Philips Semiconductors. Prior to that he worked at VideoLogic, an innovative multimedia and graphics company and Hitachi's European Semiconductor Division.

In September last year Phil Gee was appointed as VP Sales Europe at Nu Horizons, a global distributor of advanced technology semiconductor, display, illumination and system solutions. It’s been a hectic few months for the company and for Gee what with new or extended franchise agreements and further expansion into Europe.

When I met with James Gambrell, the President and CEO or Artisan Software, last month it was at the Groucho Club in London’s Soho. The name of the club was insired by a quote from Groucho Marx: "I wouldn't want to join a club that would accept me as a member." So it was with some degree of trepidation that I headed into Soho to meet him.

Five minutes from the restaurant where I met Tim Haynes, the CEO and one of the founders of Nujira the RF power amplifier company, is Monty Python’s Spamalot, King Arthur’s musical search for the Holy Grail. Now I’m not suggesting that Nujira’s management team are in anyway like King Arthur, Sir Lancelot or Sir Robin but they have certainly been able to commercially develop what for many has been described as the ‘Holy Grail’ of envelope tracking.

Back in May I got the chance to meet with Amanda Parker, currently sales and marketing director at Advanced Power Components (APC) an AIM listed specialist distributor.

We met at a new steakhouse called High Timber, recently opened and named after the ancient London City street in which it resides. A South African restaurant designed for besuited City diners it has entered the tough and super competitive market of London dining. As you sit down to lunch you get a view of London's Globe theatre, the Tate Modern gallery and the Millennium Bridge. The restaurant provides an impressive setting, where the service was impeccable and the standards high. But then Parker herself is someone who believes in high standards and finds herself working in a challenging and extremely competitive market.