For Immediate Release

ASQ Announces 2007-2008 Officers

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 7, 2007 — The American Society for Quality (ASQ) announced the following slate of officers for the 2007-08 term:

Chairman	Ronald Atkinson
President	Michael Nichols
President-elect	Roberto Saco
Treasurer	E. David Spong
Newly Elected Board Member	Stephen Hacker
Reelected Board Members:	Kay Kendall David B. Levy Richard A. Litts Richard F. McKeever Richard A. Gould Donald C. Singer William H. LaFollette

The results were announced at ASQ’s Annual Business Meeting, held in conjunction with the World Conference on Quality and Improvement, April 30 – May 2, in Orlando, Florida. The results are based on a general membership vote that took place beginning February 23, 2007. Current ASQ president Ron Atkinson will assume the chairman’s duties on July 1, 2007, and Michael Nichols, who is currently president-elect, will move into the president position.

“For me the role of president is the ultimate form of giving back to the organization that nurtured and developed me in my professional career,” said Nichols. “We must continue to reinvent ourselves by creating new and interesting memberships that will attract the next generation of quality professionals.

“We need to be the leaders in the next wave of innovation techniques. We must find ways to bridge across new and old markets and help others see the value and application of basic or fundamental quality techniques.” 

Nichols is the principal consultant for Nichols Quality Associates, Greensboro, N.C.,  a consortium of Lean and Six Sigma Master Black Belts providing deployment consulting, training, and project coaching for business process improvement.

The American Society for Quality, www.asq.org, has been the world’s leading authority on quality for 60 years.  With more than 90,000 individual and organizational members, the professional association advances learning, quality improvement and knowledge exchange to improve business results, and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide.  As champion of the quality movement, ASQ offers technologies, concepts, tools and training to quality professionals, quality practitioners and everyday consumers, encouraging all to Make Good Great®.  ASQ has been the sole administrator of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award since 1991. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., ASQ is a founding partner of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a prominent quarterly economic indicator, and also produces the Quarterly Quality Report.