College of Charleston President George Benson was a speaker and master of ceremonies at this week’s Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Ceremony in Baltimore.
The ceremony and conference events for the current week included a 25th Anniversary Gala celebrating the Baldrige Program.
President Benson currently serves as chair of the board of directors of The Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
Pictured at the National Baldrige Quality Award ceremony are Patrick Gallagher (U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology), Randy O’Neal (Vice President of Production Operations, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control), James F. Berry (former President, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control), Rebecca Blank (U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce), and George Benson (President, College of Charleston)
“I’m honored to have been the master of ceremonies at this week’s Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award ceremony in Baltimore,” said President Benson. “The four award winners will serve as role models for corporations across the U.S. and around the world.”
The newly announced award winners include Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, along with the City of Irving (TX).
That Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards are presented each year by the President of the United States to organizations that demonstrate superior quality and
performance. Awards are given in the manufacturing, service, small business, education, healthcare, and nonprofit sectors.
The award is named after the late Malcolm Baldrige, a former U.S. Secretary of Commerce. The Baldridge National Quality Program is supervised by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Each applicant for this award receives over 400 hours of rigorous review by independent experts.
The internationally recognized Baldrige Award requires applicants to show achievement and improvement in seven areas, with those areas making up the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence: leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; human resource focus; process management; and business/organizational performance results.
President Benson has been associated with the Baldrige Award since 1997, when he was appointed as one of nine national Baldrige Award judges. He is a former chairman of the board of overseers for the Baldrige National Quality Award.
President Benson came to the College of Charleston in 2007. He previously was dean of the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, a post he held from 1998-2007. Prior to that, he served for five years as dean of the Rutgers Business School at Rutgers University. From 1977 to 1993, he was a faculty member in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.
