President, Business Excellence Institute
David McClaskey is an independent consultant, Baldrige expert and one of the few individuals to have the privilege of assisting SIX companies to win SEVEN Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards (about 10% of the total winners): Poudre Valley Health Care (2008); University of Northern Colorado Monfort College of Business (2004 winner); Pal’s Sudden Service (2001 winner); OMI (2000 winner); The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company (1999 and 1992 winner); and Eastman Chemical Company (1993 winner). He also assisted one company, Florida Power and Light, to be the first company outside of Japan to win Japan’s National Quality Award, the Deming Prize. He has assisted 4 companies to win Level 4 (highest level) of the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence Award. David served as one of nine Judges for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award from 1999-2002. This is the panel of experts, appointed by the Secretary of Commerce, which selects the national Baldrige winners. In addition to having served as a Baldrige Judge, he has also served as a Judge for the Tennessee Quality Award (1993-1998; 2004-current) a Judge for the State of Georgia Quality Award (1998-2003) and a Baldrige Examiner.
David is co-founder and President of Pal’s Business Excellence Institute (BEI). Since 1999, he has been teaching and helping leaders and managers around the U.S. and Canada use Pal’s world-class performance excellence practices to improve their performance and achieve excellence.
As a consultant, David works with all types of organizations and companies to help them use Baldrige, Customer Service, Lean Six Sigma, Lean, and other performance management tools to improve their management, work processes and results. This includes designing and executing simple but effective strategic planning processes to help organizations focus on and accomplish their vital few improvement priorities. David has consulted with manufacturing, service, health care, education, small businesses, government, and non-profit organizations. Some of the organizations include: Poudre Valley Health System; Pal’s, RPM Pizza (largest Dominos Pizza franchisee), The Restaurant Company (highest rated Arby’s franchisee); AT&T; Veterans Health Administration (national and VISNs 9 and 20); City of Kingsport; Scott County Virginia, South Carolina State Government; United Way of Greater Kingsport; Sullivan County School Board; John Deere Health Care; Eastman Kodak; University of Northern Colorado; University of Tennessee; University of Florida; and Poudre School District. David is a national instructor for the American Society for Quality (ASQ). He co-developed and teaches ASQ’s, 5-day “Introduction to Quality Management” course that is offered nationally.
Prior to 2007, in addition to doing consulting, David worked for the 1993 Baldrige Award winning Eastman Chemical Company for 34 years as an internal Performance Excellence Consultant. During his 34 years with Eastman Chemical Co., he helped design and implement many of Eastman’s Award-winning, company-wide QM systems. David, who has also had extensive business training, was responsible for helping Eastman use Quality Management and Six Sigma to get results. David trained their Six Sigma Black Belts and Green Belts, specializing in Black Belts/Green Belts that worked on non-manufacturing projects, including Supply Chain, Business and Pricing processes, and HR.
David became the world’s first Baldrige trainer when the U.S. Government and ASQ asked him to develop and teach the initial Baldrige Examiner Preparation Course to the entire original (1988) Malcolm Baldrige Board of Examiners. David helped develop the initial Baldrige scoring criteria and assessment procedures and was a “leading contributor” to improvements in the 1989-91 Baldrige criteria as well as a contributor to the 2001 Baldrige criteria. Since 1988, David has continued to be very active in doing Baldrige instruction. He has taught over 4,000 managers and professionals, in the U.S. and internationally, how to understand the Baldrige criteria and use the criteria to assess and improve their companies. David developed the three-day Examiner Preparation courses for both the Tennessee Quality Award (1993) and the Arkansas Quality Award (1995) and trained their initial Board of Examiners.
David is the 1998 recipient of ASQ’s prestigious international E. L. Grant Award for the development and presentation of meritorious educational programs in quality management. In 1993, David received the Distinguished Service Award from the University of Florida’s College of Engineering for his leadership in developing QM practices applicable to higher education. In 1989, David received a Certificate of Appreciation from the U.S. Department of Commerce for “outstanding service to the nation” for his role in preparing the first Baldrige Board of Examiners.
David is a Fellow of both ASQ and the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). He is an ASQ-certified Quality Engineer, Six Sigma Black Belt, Quality Manager, and Quality Improvement Associate; is a licensed Professional Engineer; and has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering from the University of Florida and the University of Tennessee. The University of Florida established the Leavenworth/McClaskey undergraduate scholarship in 1995.