News
Foundation Board of Director Officers for 2010 and Election of Lifetime Member and New Member

The Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was created in 1988 to provide the private sector a means of ensuring a successful Award program. The Foundation has no oversight of the Baldrige Award program and has no involvement in the award process. In 2010, there are thirteen members of the Board of Directors for the Foundation. The members of the Board of Directors are leaders who work voluntarily on the Board to support the Baldrige Program. The diverse makeup of the Board has representatives from all industry sectors to enable a balance of input for consensus decision making. A detailed photo directory and current industry positions is available on the following link – Board of Directors.

The officers of the Foundation are led by the Chair of the Foundation, Dr. Joe F. Alexander. Dr. Alexander is serving the final year of a two-year term as Chair of the Foundation Board of Directors. Dr. Alexander is the Associate Dean and Senior Professor of Performance Excellence for the Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Alexander joined The Massey School in 2007 after serving six years as Dean of the Monfort College of Business at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC). Under his leadership, Monfort became the first business school in U.S. history to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award from the President of the United States (2004).


The Chair-Elect of the Foundation is Debbie J. Collard. Ms. Collard and E. David Spong, also a member of the Board, led the quality journey at the Boeing Airlift and Tanker Programs, a 1998 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient, and at Boeing Aerospace Support, a 2003 Award recipient. Ms. Collard is currently the Director of Communications and Business Services for the Boeing Shared Services Group of the Boeing Company. Debbie also is Chair of the California Council for Excellence, the state award program modeled after the Baldrige National Quality Program.


The newly elected Secretary of the Foundation Board of Directors is William Petasnick. Mr. Petasnick was recently appointed as Secretary for the Baldrige Foundation Board of Directors on January 1, 2010. Mr. Petasnick will serve a two-year term as Secretary. In his role as Secretary, Mr. Petasnick performs all duties related to the office of Secretary; such as being sufficiently familiar with legal documents (articles, Bylaws, IRS letters, etc.) to note applicability during meetings; and other duties that may be assigned to him by the Chair of the Board or the Board of Directors. William Petasnick is president and chief executive officer of Froedtert Hospital and the Froedtert & Community Health system based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is a nationally recognized senior executive, a distinguished community leader, teacher and mentor to students of health care administration. Mr. Petasnick was the 2008 American Hospital Association Board of Trustees chairman and currently chairs the Long-Range Policy Committee.

In other News - 

The prior Chair of the Foundation Board of Directors, E. David Spong, was selected as a Life-Time member of the Foundation Board of Directors. Dr. Spong led the Foundation from 2006 through 2008, and has been a Baldrige Ambassador for over ten years. He was the first leader to have led two separate organizations to become a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Recipient – 1998 for Boeing Airlift and Tanker Programs and in 2003 for Boeing Aerospace Support. Dr. Spong joins Letitia Baldrige (Malcolm Baldrige’s sister) and John Hudiburg (Florida Power and Light) as the only elected Lifetime Members of the Foundation Board of Directors.

In January 2010, Ms. Susan Sarfati, the CEO of High Performance Strategies, joined the Board of Directors. Ms. Sarfati was the founding president & CEO of The Center for Association Leadership and executive vice president of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE). She served as CEO of The Greater Washington Society of Association Executives (GWSAE) from 1993 to the merger with ASAE in 2004. Ms. Sarfati has been a leader in strengthening the programs and services offered to association professionals, with emphasis on educational opportunities and lifelong learning. Ms. Sarfati is also known for mentoring association professionals and facilitating effective relationships and connections.