College of Charleston President George Benson was the master of ceremonies at the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Ceremony in Baltimore on April 6.
President Benson currently serves as chair of the board of directors of The Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
“I’m honored to have played a role in our nation’s highest award for performance excellence,” said President Benson. “The two award winners will serve as role models for organizations across the U.S. and around the world.”
The Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award Ceremony Presented April 6, 2014 in Baltimore
Pictured left to right with the Baldrige Award Crystal: Patrick Gallagher (Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director), George Benson (Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Chair), James Conforti (Sutter Health Sacremento Sierra Region President), Janet Wagner (Sutter Davis Hospital CEO), Penny Pritzker (U.S. Commerce Department Secretary).
The newly-announced award winners include Sutter Davis Hospital, Davis, California and Pewaukee School District, Pewaukee, Wisconsin.
The 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 for the late Malcolm Baldrige, a former U.S. Secretary of Commerce. The Baldrige National Quality Program is part of 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 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.
