Baldrige Fellows Programs Selects 14 Executives for First Class

The Baldrige Fellows, an executive development program centered on forming relationships with and learning from Baldrige National Quality Award recipient organizations and their senior executives, recently announced the 14 members of its initial class.

The first Baldrige Fellows are: Wayne Foraker, senior director, Office of Institutional Assessment, University of Phoenix; William Griffin, vice president of marketing, North America, AGCO Corp.; Donald Haag, vice president of Mid-West area, Packaging Corporation of America; Robert Hagans, chief financial officer, AARP; Ziad Haydar, vice president for clinical excellence and physician integration, Ascension Health; John McCarville, senior vice president of global supply chain and information technology, Griffith Laboratories; Margaret McGoldrick, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Abington Memorial Hospital; James Metcalf, president and chief operating officer, USG Corp.; Brad Mitchell, president of global logistics and distribution, UPS; Monty Pooley, president of North America retail, Sara Lee Corp.; John Smith, global product director for propylene oxide/propylene glycol, Dow Chemical Co.; Troy Villarreal, chief executive officer, The Medical Center of Plano (Texas), HCA Corp.; Russell Williams, director of quality, Baldor Electric Co; and Michael Woronka, chief executive officer, Action Ambulance Service.

The activities of the Baldrige Fellows Program are designed to accelerate the executive development of participants through exploration and application of the Baldrige framework, the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and the impact of systems thinking on organizations. To help translate lessons into actions for their organizations, Baldrige Fellows are paired with mentors who are either a senior executive from a Baldrige Award recipient organization or a member of the Baldrige Foundation Board of Directors. They also have numerous opportunities to network with and learn from each other.

The next class of Baldrige Fellows will begin in April 2012. For more information on the Baldrige Fellows Program, see the Web page at http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/fellows/index.cfm, or contact Bob Fangmeyer, robert.fangmeyer [at] nist.gov (robert[dot]fangmeyer[at]nist[dot]gov), (301) 975-4781, or the Baldrige Office, baldrige [at] nist.gov (baldrige[at]nist[dot]gov), (301) 975-2036.