Former College of Charleston President P. George Benson was the master of ceremonies at the recent Baldrige National Quality Awards, the nation’s highest honors for innovation and performance excellence.

Professor P. George Benson

P. George Benson

Benson hosted the Baltimore event on Sunday, April 1, 2017. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross was also in attendance and presented the awards.

This year’s honorees were:

The event was put on by the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, a public-private partnership dedicated to performance excellence. Baldrige defines performance excellence as a management approach that delivers ever-improving value to customers and stakeholders, improving an organization’s overall effectiveness and capabilities and learning for an organization and its workforce.

Benson, who holds a doctorate in decision sciences from the University of Florida, served as the College’s president from 2007 to 2014 and currently teaches courses as a professor in the School of Business.