Judging Panel (test)

Professor Adebanjo has worked on several benchmarking projects in Europe and Asia and he previously led the UK Benchmarking Club for the Food and Drinks Industry. He has published his benchmarking research in leading academic journals and has authored 2 book chapters on Benchmarking. He has also co-authored a BPIR Management Brief on Benchmarking. Professor Adebanjo has been an associate researcher and consultant for the Centre for Organisational Excellence Research (COER) for more than two decades. He has served as an international judge for Dubai Government Excellence Programme initiatives since 2016 and has also assessed best practice competitions for several years.

Mandarr Agshikar is a Business Excellence mentor & coach, an EFQM & CASS Certified Assessor, and holds the ASQ Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE) credential, with more than three decades of experience. He is also a Distinguished Toastmaster and a Member of the Toastmasters International. Mandarr provides management, marketing & business excellence services through his company and has rich experience in terms of assessment of organisations & individuals through his association with most of the prestigious Excellence Awards in the Middle East region.

Shouqi Al Yousuf is a business excellence and strategy consultant with more than 26 years of experience.
Shouqi established the TQM department in DEWA, where he was instrumental in achieving many local and international recognitions; such as DGEP, DQA, IIP, DHDA, BSC (5 Star rating and Sword of Honor), Hall of Fame for the BSC implementation.
Shouqi participated in translating the EFQM Models and training programs to the Arabic language, and is a certified EFQM trainer and assessor. Shouqi developed the Abu Dhabi Chamber (SME) Award along and was a jury member for DQA, SKEA and Shjseen.

Dr. Ajitabh has more than 28 yrs. Industry, Consultancy, Research / Academia experience. He is Certified (Senior) Assessor for CII HR Excellence Model, EFQM, TATA Business Excellence Model (TBEM) by Tata Quality Management Services (TQMS), Pune. He worked in Tata Capital Ltd. (TCL, Mumbai) (2010-2019), as Vice President, Head Business Excellence and L&D, CII Institute of Quality (Bangalore) and Gammon India. He led People CMM – Implementation in Tata, GMR Airports and DLF; His educational qualifications are Ph.D., MBA and BE. He holds a Doctorate in ‘Strategy & Competitiveness’ from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi (INDIA).

Bart van Ark is Managing Director of The Productivity Institute, a UK-wide organisation which aims to lay the foundations for an era of sustained and inclusive productivity growth by bringing together academic research, policy studies and business engagement. He is also a Professor of Productivity Studies at the Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) at the University of Manchester. Bart is also a Senior Advisor of the Economy, Strategy and Finance (ESF) Center at The Conference Board, where he was Chief Economist from 2008 until 2020.

Dr Ayed is Quality & Business Excellence consultant and academician member of International Academy for Quality (IQA). He led the technical team who developed Saudi Arabia National Quality Strategy that developed by Saudi Standards and Quality Org.(SASO). He participated in establishing, managing, assessing and judging many local and regional Quality & Business Excellence awards. Dr Ayed was the Chairman of Jury for 2 cycles for the National Quality Award of Saudi Arabia, king Abdulaziz Quality Award (KAQA). Dr Ayed was recognized by Kano medal for Excellence leadership.

At UPF he has been Rector and director Department Economics and Business; Dean UPF Barcelona School of Management. He has been Dean Catalan Economist Association, President Catalan Accounting Association; Member of the Board of Directors of the Spanish Stock Exchange Supervisor and President Spanish Register of Expert Accountants. He has published several books of management and is editor and board member of several academic journals.

Casey has close to twenty years of experience in driving operational & business process improvement and organizational change across different industries such as Electronics Manufacturing Services, Metal Fabrication, Tyre Manufacturing, Injection Moulding, Packaging, Automation Inspection Machine, Furniture industry, and Gold Jewellery Manufacturing. He is specializing in the areas of Operational Excellence, Lean Six Sigma and Process Digitalization across various manufacturing industries (MNCs and SMEs). He is also the founder of Operational Skills Development Centre (OSDC), an Advisory Board Member of Operational Excellence Society (https://opexsociety.org/about/leadership/) and the recipient of the Malaysia Productivity Champion from years 2017 to 2019.

Khashayar is a proven business management consultant with a progressive track record in building bridges and relationships across diverse cultures, business and governmental sectors. A resourceful mediator, negotiator, and executive coach, he provides constructive counsel to clients seeking to do business with Iran and Iranian businesses aspiring to excel internationally. Khashayar serves on the board of the Global Benchmarking Network.

Teresa Bagaman, MBA, Industrial Engineer, and a PhD student, is an Innovator, Quality and Process Excellence Management Expert, Design Thinking Coach, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, and dedicated Lifelong Learning Facilitator on various fields such as Strategic Planning, Business Intelligence, Change Management, and Organizational Excellence Assessment. For over 25 years, she successfully implemented Innovative and Disruptive Solutions in Healthcare, Manufacturing, BPO, IT and Telco. A Gold Honor MBA awardee (Ateneo Graduate School of Business), she completed certification courses in Disruptive Innovation from Harvard Business School, Innovation Management & Design Thinking from HEC Paris and Data Science/Data Visualization, Change Management from eCornell University.

Dr. Atif Baig is a Business Excellence consultant and former senior banker with over 15 years’ experience across Asia, Africa, and New Zealand. He has held leadership roles in major banks, leading transformation programs and product innovation. As a Senior Consultant with the Centre for Organisational Excellence Research (COER), he supports public and private sector organisations in benchmarking and business excellence initiatives. Atif holds a PhD from Massey University, New Zealand and an MBA from Warwick Business School (UK).

Andrew is CEO of Exemplar Global. Originally from the UK, Andrew lives in New Zealand and has held senior management and executive roles in conformity assessment bodies. With over 35 years work experience, Andrew has worked in China, South-East Asia, the Middle East, North America, and Europe. In 2015, Andrew joined ASQ, as Managing Director for Global Operations before becoming CEO of Exemplar Global, a subsidiary of ASQ. Andrew has also held several Board roles and is currently a Board Member of NZBEF.

Romy Baker as a former Chief Executive of one of the largest private hospitals in Australia, St John of God Subiaco, led the organisation through a major building redevelopment and financial and corporate reorganisation. Romy’s unique combination of business acumen, strategic leadership skills, project management, and nursing have also been utilised in planning, designing, developing, and establishing general practice medical centres and the amalgamation of four leading research centres, creating a major national research institute, Westmead Millennium Institute, Sydney, NSW. Romy has a special interest in business compliance and is an experienced evaluator with the Business Excellence Australia (BEA) and the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).

No stranger to reducing fragility in organisations, Tony’s new book is titled ‘Time to Rethink Risk Management; Surviving Future Global Crises‘, published by World Scientific Publishing in 2023. He is an international expert speaker, consultant and trainer in Quality Management, Organisational Excellence, Lean Operations and Six Sigma. He was formerly the Rolls-Royce funded Professor of Quality and Reliability Management at the University of Leicester UK. As well as having worked with the UK, Indian and Hong Kong governments, Tony works extensively in the Gulf and has chaired the Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award Jury since its inception, thirty years ago. He is a GEM 2.0 Assessor, an EFQM Licensed Trainer, and a Competency Assessor and Auditor Trainer for the Royal Statistical Society’s scheme for ISO 18404.

Baker is a senior public sector transformation and organizational excellence advisor with over 25 years of experience in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman. He specializes in institutional excellence, performance management, and strategic quality systems, advising leadership on strategic and operational excellence transformation. He has led award-winning initiatives, built sustainable management systems and excellence cultures in alignment with corportae strategies, secured multiple awards and ISO certifications, and served as an assessor for leading regional excellence programs.

Wayne has a background as an executive in Defence and more recently in Government Regulatory practice organisations where he has been involved in leading and managing organisational change and projects both big and small. Wayne has on ongoing interest in using the Baldrige Performance Excellence framework to assess organisations and identify opportunities for improvement. He is an Associate Fellow of the NZ Business Excellence Foundation and a NZ Baldrige Qualified Examiner; and has worked with a number of New Zealand organisations in their journey toward performance excellence.

Ailsa is a Partner at the Lean training & consultancy company S A Partners and the founder and Programme Director of Onsite Insights the UK’s Best Practice visit programme; she also heads up the Lean Forum and Shingo Forum – two successful virtual networking groups. Prior to joining S A Partners, Ailsa ran the government funded Inside UK Enterprise programme; and spent ten years in Australasia working in the tourism & leisure industry as a strategy consultant. She was a guest lecturer at Auckland University and speaks regularly at conferences on the topics of ‘Best Practice’ and ‘Becoming World Class’.

Garvin is a seasoned HR (Talent & Leadership) & OD professional with over 20 years of practitioner’s experience in real estate, banking and public service organisations. Prior to his present stint in Frasers Property Group, he worked for Wells Fargo Bank (Singapore), United Overseas Bank, Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR), Ministry of Law, and the Civil Service College in Singapore. He had worked on several process benchmarking projects with sustainable improvements in both private and public organisations ranging from Cargill Asia Pacific, Singapore Prisons Service, Sembawang Airbase, Public Service Division, Building & Construction Authority and Agri-Veterinary Authority of Singapore, to name a few.

Chia Beng Chye joined Philips Singapore, in 1979. He chaired the Quality Improvement Committee to put in place quality and business excellence, Philips Singapore was the first Philips Factory outside Europe to attain Philips Quality Award in 1994. In year 2000, Nelson joined Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Company. He set up a Quality Management System and Business Excellence Framework.  SSMC attained the SQA Award in 2005 and 2013. In 2014, Chia left SSMC and set up My Virtual Resource Pte Ltd, helping MNCs and SMEs on their journey to Business Excellence. He is a National Lead Assessor since 1998.

Jeremy is Managing Director of Klicx New Zealand, a consultancy that supports organisations and businesses in operational efficiencies using EFQM, Lean Six Sigma and digital AI. Previous roles in the UK and New Zealand included Senior Management and contractor positions across various industries such as defence, airline industry, healthcare and manufacturing using lean process improvement methodologies. Jeremy has an Executive MBA, expertise in Lean Six Sigma and is a certified assessor using the EFQM Model. Jeremy is currently a Board Member of NZBEF.

Tonnis has helped many Industry Associations and Consultants with optimizing their benchmarking process, resulting in less time spend in benchmarking and more time left for advising. Tonnis is a Chief Benchmarking Officer for more than 20 years, focusing on using benchmarking to improve performance and focusing on optimizing the benchmarking process through intelligent software. As a body of knowledge in competitor benchmarking, Tonnis writes many articles on benchmarking and is a frequently asked speaker on conferences. Tonnis is a proud member of the GBN, representing the Netherlands.

For over 35 years, Dr. Joseph A. DeFeo has been at the forefront of building cultures of excellence through quality. With a career spanning higher education, corporate training and development, quality in manufacturing, operational excellence consulting and AI driven eQMS, Dr. DeFeo has dedicated his life’s work to the pursuit of helping organizations across the globe improve the quality of their products, processes, people and profit. As one of the world’s leading experts on the development of effective and efficient quality and operational excellence programs, Dr. DeFeo has worked as a trusted advisor to a multitude of businesses and business leaders – helping them to increase sales, reduce costs and improve their overall customer experience.

Ekaterina is a recognized expert in institutional investor relations and operational excellence in private equity. She specializes in building scalable content governance systems for fundraising and due diligence processes. She has designed and implemented centralized knowledge management frameworks that significantly improve transparency, efficiency, consistency, and investor trust. Ekaterina is passionate about transforming operational chaos into structured best practices in asset management.

Mehran served as Assessor for the Dubai Quality Award program since 2007. He has been actively involved in a number of research and benchmarking projects such as UAE Service Excellence Program (2007-2012). Dr. Doulat serves as the Editorial Board member and Associate Editor/Reviewer for several referred academic journals. He has also been nominated and received several awards for his research contributions including “the IEEE Outstanding Publication Award” in 2012 and 2013, “the IEOM Best Paper Award” in 2015 and 2018, “UOW Outstanding Alumni Award in Research and Innovation” in 2016 and “IEOM Outstanding Service Award” in 2018.

Dr Siham El-Kafafi is the founder of Arrows Research Consultancy Limited.  She is an entrepreneur, educator and businesswoman who is passionate about making a difference in the lives of her students and clients. She started her company in June 2014 with the aim of sharing her mentoring, training and coaching experience through tailored programs serving her clients and their needs. Dr El-Kafafi has a wide industry and consultancy experience in the medical, manufacturing and service industry besides being an academic for the past 23 years.

Dr Zeyad holds a Ph.D. in Quality Management from the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. He is an EFQM approved assessor, certified Knowledge Manager, and a senior member of the American Society for Quality. Before joining the Executive Council, he was an Assistant Professor and Assistant Dean in the Productivity & Quality Institute, Arab Academy for Science & Technology, Alexandria, Egypt. Dr Zeyad has led hundreds of consultancy projects in Quality, Excellence and Assessment of Excellence Models & Criteria.

Previously, he was Professor of Responsibility & Sustainability in the School of Management, Massey Business School, Massey University, New Zealand. He is the Editor-in- Chief of Corporate Governance – An International Journal of Business in Society. Gabriel worked as a Research Fellow at the United Nations University, Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU/IAS), Tokyo, Japan, and taught for several years at Royal Holloway University of London, England. He also worked as a Research Fellow with International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London.

Dr. Farghali is an Organizational Excellence Advisor with over 25 years of experience across government, healthcare, and corporate sectors. He holds a Master’s Degree in Quality Management and has led excellence assessments, benchmarking studies, and organizational transformation initiatives. He has developed excellence competency frameworks aligned with organizational excellence models and ISO standards and has designed, managed, and judged excellence awards across multiple sectors. Leveraging frameworks such as EFQM and KAQA, he supports organizations in achieving sustainable excellence, innovation, resilience, operational effectiveness, and long-term high performance.

Abraham is the Chairman & President of NZOQ since 2015 and was the Past President for Asia Pacific Quality Organisation. Abraham has had significant contribution in building NZOQ to its current status and is very well connected with Quality Organizations from Australia (AOQ) America (ASQ) Shanghai (SAQ), Philippines (PSQ) and all other APQO council countries. Abraham was instrumental in merging NZBEF and NZOQ in 2016 offering a one stop shop in Quality, Baldrige & Business Excellence.

Ravi is a Business Excellence and Innovation professional with more than 20 years’ experience working with Australian and Global organisations. Having started his professional career as a process improvement specialist with Accenture, Ravi has worked with leading management consultancies like Deloitte, CGI and SAI Global to deliver tailored improvement, excellence and innovation solutions to global clients. Ravi is currently a non-Executive Director of Business Excellence Australia and a non-Executive Director of the Australian Organisation for Quality.

Andrew’s journey is a story of exposure to technology from farming in Canterbury, to military engineering technology in the pacific, to night vision optics whilst on the ground in Afghanistan, to building New Zealands largest foodwaste processor and now operating New Zealands first commercial scale Anaerobic Digestor, Ecogas Reporoa. Andrew owns and operates EcoStock Supplies Limited, large scale food-2-feed business with comparable business located in Australia, North America, UK and Europe. Andrew and his team, have won many environmental awards including the 2011 Ministry for Environment Supreme Green Ribbon Environmental Award, 2013 Joint Winners of Auckland University $1m Entrepreneurs’ Challenge Prize, 2019 Sustainable Business Network Super Star Award, winners of IBPC’s 2022 ESG Excellence Awards with an outstanding 6 Star recognition, and in 2023 won the New Zealand Energy Industry Excellence Award, for the low carbon future generation business Ecogas.

Dr. Rey B. Fremista is a globally recognized expert in quality, leadership, operational excellence, and digital transformation. A Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Certified Management Consultant (CMC), Certified Digital Transformation Professional, Certified Shared Leadership Team Coach, and Certified in de Bono Six Thinking Hats®, he advises organizations on building future-ready capabilities and high-performing cultures. He serves as an Academician of the International Academy for Quality (IAQ), Chair of the IAQ Sustainability Quality Award 2026, World OPEX Awards 2026 Ambassador for the Philippines and Southeast Asia, and Global Benchmarking Network Ambassador. Previously a Presidential Appointee to the Philippine Quality Award Executive Committee, he was recognized among LinkedIn’s Top 30 Leaders (2022) and Top 100 Filipinos (2021, 2023–2025).

Fellow, the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). An award-winning, dynamic and multi-talented academic and practitioner with extensive expertise in Learning, Service Quality and Organisational Development offering 20+ years of experience in implementing, managing and optimising multi-level OD and strategic practices. Demonstrated leadership and success with specialised knowledge and experience managing the unique challenges and needs associated with the complex organisational structure. Successful in designing, developing, and leading PG and UG Courses and implementing and refining the long-term strategy.

Sachin is currently Group Head – Business Excellence at Adani Enterprises Limited, one of the largest and most diversified conglomerates in India. The Group has a market-leading presence in natural resources, cement, data centers, power generation, transmission and distribution, renewable energy, gas and electric utilities, agro-business (commodities, edible oil, food products, cold storage, and grain silos), public transport infrastructure, logistics (seaports, airports, shipping, and rail), real estate, consumer finance, media, and defense.
He is the youngest ASQ Fellow and Board of Director and previously served on boards of Quality Council of India, IMC’s RBNQA Trust.

Saad is a seasoned Operational Excellence specialist with a strong track record of optimizing business processes across diverse sectors, including Defense, Healthcare, Education, and Distribution. Over the course of his career, he has led improvements in more than 300 processes, delivering an estimated $15 million in value. Many of these achievements were driven by the adoption of global best practices. Saad has also had the privilege of working with the COER Team and serving as an assessor for the IBPC.

Paul has been actively engaged in Baldrige-based performance excellence since 1997 as a consultant, trainer, and public speaker. He helps organizations improve by helping to focus, align, and accelerate performance excellence initiatives through effective use of the Baldrige Excellence Framework, the China Quality Award, and the EFQM Excellence Model. A senior member of the American Society for Quality, Paul is a sought-after keynote speaker at performance excellence conferences around the globe. He is also the co-author, alongside Mark Blazey, of “Insights to Performance Excellence: Using the Baldrige Framework and Other Integrated Management Systems,” published by the American Society for Quality.

Phil has a background in operations, finance and information systems. His core skill is driving rapid business improvement – providing better service at lower cost.  He has a passion for using technology to drive value creation.  Phil is a Fellow Certified Management Consultant (CMC),  Project Management Professional (PMP), Strategy Implementation Professional (SIP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Core industry experience includes Health, Education, Social Services, Property, Financial Services.

Founder and Chief Creatologist IDEAS. Lifetime Master Trainer, Dr Edward de Bono. Major award winning Creativity, Innovation & Transformation projects with Government and best in class fortune 500 companies globally. Assignments with clients across 40 countries. Driven innovation and transformation in governments and best in class Fortune 500 companies. Trained across multiple lines of business and segments

Skilled facilitator that brings several years of experience across various organizations globally. A Master Trainer in Edward de Bono Tools and several other workshops on developing “Thinking as a skill”. Focuses on how to be personally creative and also on how to lead teams to produce creative, sustainable and innovative solutions. Highly motivated with exceptional skills developed over 15 years of experience. Conducted over 700 interventions for leading fortune 500 companies globally.

Mai is a Strategic Planning & Excellence Advisor with over 18 years of experience in developing, implementing, and optimizing strategic plans for leading organizations in Jordan and the UAE. Mai is skilled in developing KPIs and performance dashboards to track progress. Adept at conducting benchmark studies, foresight studies , analyzing competitiveness global reports, she has worked with different excellence government models. Mai is an EFQM Assessor, holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and is a Certified Prosci Change Practitioner.

Carew has a background of planning and guiding Quality, Environmental. Information Security and Health & Safety implementations for businesses successfully gaining ISO Certifications. He is a Certified Lead Auditor and Trainer for ISO 9001, 14001, 27001 & 45001. He also covers Defence and Corporate Social Responsibility for The IQM Group. Carew represents New Zealand on the ISO Joint Technical Committee 1/27 – Information Security, Cybersecurity and Privacy Protection. He is a Director of the NZ Business Excellence Foundation.

Formerly a CEO of a global non-profit, Peter now runs Holtmann Professional Services, a coaching-based consulting firm specialising in risk and crisis. He is a Chairman of a number of Boards and is actively involved in social enterprise globally and assesses and judges business excellence systems. He regularly presents online and in-person across a range of business and leadership topics. He is an experienced leadership coach and youth mentor.

Jemma is the Founder and Director of The Lightbox Group, specialising in People, Culture, and Innovation Consulting Services. Formerly a CIO and Executive Director within the Public Sector, and CEO of a Health Technology company, she now supports organisations with increasing maturity in HR and Innovation. She is an International Assessor for Innovation and Future Foresight, and an Ambassador for the Global Council for Innovative Organisations with Dubai Government and the Global Innovation Management Institute. Jemma is also a Founding Board Member for the Australian Innovation Management Institute.

Miguel is the CEO & Founder of FFWD – Futures Intelligence and Strategic Foresight, a firm headquartered in Madrid, with offices in Singapore and Dubai. Miguel has over 20 years of expertise helping companies and governments to raise the adoption of foresight, long-term thinking, and strategic anticipation across many industries: design (DesignCouncil Singapore, IKEA); retail (Zara, Chanel); finance (Banco Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank); food and beverages (Red Bull, Telepizza, Nestlé); technology (Microsoft, Telefónica, Movistar); media (Havas Media Group, DDB, Yellow Pages); industry and engineering (Buro Happold, ArcelorMittal, Abu Dhabi Ports) and government (Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Canada & Spain).

Professor Jonker’s research interests are explicitly developing strategies for sustainability and circularity related to new business concepts and business models. Within this focus, he explores how to shape systemic change and transformation leading to organising (inter) organisational sustainability. Thus far, he has written and co-written 35 books, published over 150 articles and provided numerous contributions to blogs, talk shows and radio programs. For seven years (2009 -2015), he was nominated on the Top 100 list of most influential ‘green’ people’ in the Netherlands.

With over 15 years of expertise in driving organizational excellence through the Baldrige Framework and EFQM, Dr. Sunny empowers organizations across diverse industries and higher education to elevate performance through strategic focus, alignment, and relentless improvement. As an esteemed Associate Judge at the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court in Thailand, he brings a wealth of legal insight. Additionally, Dr. Sunny has mentored and taught at leading universities in Thailand, specializing in cutting-edge subjects such as Business Research, Leadership, and Global Business Management at the graduate level.

Yuen Wah brings >30 years of in-depth practitioner experiences in BPR, experience design, organisational excellence and digital transformation. Her facilitative leadership in driving transformation at OCBC Bank had enabled the win of prestigious national awards – Singapore Quality Award (SQA) in 2014 and Service Excellence Award in 2009. She served as Lead Assessor for Singapore Business Excellence over the past 13 years (2006 – 2019), and as International Assessor for the Australian Business Excellence Award in 2011. She holds an MBA (with distinction) in Strategic Management from Strathclyde Graduate Business School and BSc (with honours) from the National University of Singapore.

Prashant is an expert in strategy, economic policy and program design focused on SME development, private sector support, entrepreneurship, export development and Foreign Direct Investment. Before Prashant founded Empact Consulting he served as a Strategy Expert to the Dubai Competitiveness Office and the Government of Ajman, led the Research & Advisory practice at Dun & Bradsteet Middle East and worked in research/consulting roles with leading firms in India including Evalueserve, Pipal Research and Genpact. Prashant holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from University of Lincoln in UK, a Masters in Applied Research from the Swiss Business School and a PhD. In Management from the Mahatma Gandhi University in India.

Award-winning author, international speaker, and strategic growth advisor, Dr. Cyndi Laurin is the founder of Guide to Greatness®. She enables CEOs, COOs, and business owners to drive real results through her proven Growth Alignment Framework™, guiding leaders worldwide to create cultures of shared accountability and achieve sustainable, profitable growth. Whether consulting, coaching, or inspiring from the stage, she accelerates performance and measurable success at every level.

Brian Lassiter was elected President & CEO of the Alliance for Performance Excellence the summer of 2025. In his role, he supports a national network of state/regional Baldrige-based programs, overseeing all aspects of the organization’s strategy, operations, fundraising, and community engagement. The Alliance also administers the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Before joining the Alliance, Brian was President & CEO of the Performance Excellence Network. Lassiter brings 35 years of experience in helping leaders, organizations, and communities improve results.

Denis is a multi-award winning (including 3 Time ASQ Medalist) Quality Management executive who is a passionate advocate of Quality and Collaboration. He has experience in engineering, management, training and auditing. His expertise includes Strategic Quality Management, Excellence Models such as EFQM and Baldrige as well as Lean, Six Sigma, the Integration of ISO management standards (ISO9001, BS99001, ISO14001, ISO45001 and ISO44001) and ICWs Leading Edge Collaboration. Denis has been an Assessor/Examiner on both Baldrige and EFQM Awards.

Suresh Lulla has made a mark through his work in the field of Quality. He is a veteran professional with 50+ years of experience. His areas of specialization include, Problem Solving, Process Excellence, Performance Excellence, Benchmarking for Best Practices. Mr Lulla was mentored by Dr J M Juran, ‘the father of Quality’, who along with Mahatma Gandhi and Shri Ramkrishna Bajaj form the trinity of his role models. He is Chairman, IMC Quality Awards Committee which adjudges the IMC Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality Award as well as the IMC Juran Medal. Since 2008, Mr Lulla has been on the Board of Directors of Global Benchmarking Network.

Wayne possesses comprehensive knowledge and extensive experience acquired from tertiary education, practice-based research, and working in prominent Japanese industrial companies in Japan for more than 25 years. His expertise encompasses cross-cultural management, entrepreneurship, innovation management, international business strategy, leadership, and quality management. His research emphasises sustainable business excellence to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge and innovative practices to industries and the economy. Wayne’s main goals include offering practical management education, fostering productive partnerships between academic institutions and local businesses, and continuing research on sustainable business excellence.

Carrie is an experienced leader in healthcare quality and safety and has presented widely and internationally on the need for a systems approach to safety and quality. She has driven large scale change programmes across healthcare systems in the UK and Australia and supports organisations, Boards and Executives in the implementation and governance of quality improvement.

Michael McLean is the Managing Director of McLean Management Consultants in Sydney, Australia. A Shilkin Prize and Juran Medal recipient. Fellow Australian Institute of Company Directors, Academic Fellow-CMC and Life Member of the AOQ. Ex-IEQCC Singapore Judge and Keynotes at APO, APQO, BP NZ, NZDIA and APQC USA. Chair Certex Certification Impartiality Committee; Guest Lecturer at Macquarie University. ISO Expert on ISO 9000 and ISO 1000 Series, and ex-Convener ISO IUMSS HB 2018. Previous manager STC, Bell Telephone Coy (IT&T); Comalco; Wrangler, National Springs/Tenneco, WD Scott (Asia-UK); HCL Axon (AU-ME-UK).

André is an executive board member of the initiative Ludwig-Erhard-Prize e.V. (ILEP e.V.). As a member of the EFQM core team, he continuously supports the development of the model. In addition to contributions to the EFQM model 2020, he coordinated a project team for the translation model to German Language.

Chief Executive of PIQC Institute of Quality (Pakistan), Experienced Researcher & Professor, International Trainer & Consultant, Author and Advisor to National Institutions in the field of Quality Engineering & Management. He is a Member of International Academy for Quality (IAQ). He Chairs Quality in Education Think Tank (QiETT) of IAQ. He is the recipient of the Ishikawa-Kano Silver Medal award by Asian Network for Quality (ANQ) from among three other awardees from Asia in 2020. He has also been awarded Regional Productivity Award by the Asian Productivity Organization (APO-Japan) in 2021. He is an author of five books on Quality and Lead Instructor of Lean Six Sigma Green/Black Belts.

Stephanie M. Naidoo is Chairwoman of the Board for Business Excellence Australia and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Crane Consulting Group. A Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and global transformation expert, she has almost 30 years’ experience delivering complex operational excellence and continuous improvement programs. The world’s first Australian-certified Master Black Belt, Stephanie tailors methodologies to achieve measurable customer and business results, coaches executive boards for sustainable performance, and serves as Adjunct Faculty for Operational Excellence programs at UNSW and the Australian Graduate School of Management. Her global experience spans the United States of America, Australia, Africa and across Asia from India through to a 10-year career in Japan.

Niso Nigmatullina is a Miami-based PR strategist and founder of Satou Agency, specializing in authority-driven positioning for founders and executives. Over the past six years, she has worked with 150+ clients across the U.S., Middle East, Asia, and Europe, helping translate visibility into measurable business outcomes. Her clients have been featured in TechCrunch, Forbes, and Business Insider, and have spoken at global platforms such as SXSW and the Effie Awards. Her expertise focuses on strategic visibility, personal branding, and reputation systems.

Nancy Nouaimeh has extensive international experience across Europe and the Middle East. She is the Founder of Xcellium Consulting, a Shingo Licensed Affiliate in the MENA region, supporting public and private organizations in organizational excellence, PMO maturity and impact, and change adoption. Her work integrates the Shingo Model™, EFQM, and integrated management systems, with a strong focus on leadership behaviour and sustainable value creation. Nancy is an active member of the International Academy for Quality (IAQ) and the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and a senior assessor and jury member for multiple private and public excellence award programs.

Cynthia Payne is a highly experienced executive leader and director with over 30 years in leadership and 25 years on NFP and FP boards. She founded Anchor Excellence in 2018, significantly impacting the Australian aged care market. Passionate about empowering leaders, Cynthia and her team provide expertise across the aged care ecosystem. She holds an MBA and various certifications, is a member of several professional institutes, and serves on multiple boards. A decorated professional, she has received several awards and is a recognised business excellence expert.

Keith has a track record of growing successful technology companies. After delivering as a senior executive for Apple in the USA and the UK, Keith has established and invested in a range of successful technology companies. He has driven this focus through QLBS (Quantum Leap Beyond Spreadsheets) which has deployed digital assessment systems for the New Zealand Food Exporters, Tourism Australia, NSW Dept of Industries and many others.

Somia Rokhgireh is a Strategic Advisor and Sustainable Excellence Architect specializing in organizational transformation through integrated systems design. As Founder of Sustainabled Design & Consulting and Sustainabled Academy, she helps organizations design sustainable, high-performing systems while equipping leaders and teams with the capabilities to drive and sustain transformation. Drawing on expertise in artificial intelligence, sustainability, operational excellence, organizational design, and leadership development, she brings together the disciplines, methodologies, and frameworks needed to build resilient, future-ready systems. An award-winning architect, IAQ Academician, and executive educator, she is recognized for helping organizations move beyond fragmented initiatives to architect integrated systems that drive sustainable excellence, build organizational capability, and create lasting value.

Dr Aymen Sajjad is a Senior Lecturer in Sustainability and Business Management at Massey University. Dr Sajjad’s research focuses on sustainability issues that confront organizations and societies. He is an Associate Editor of Business Strategy and the Environment, Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society, FIIB Business Review Journal, and the International Journal of Sustainable Society. Dr Sajjad has published in top-tier business management and sustainability journals. His research interests include business sustainability, corporate social responsibility, United Nations sustainable development goals, and sustainable business strategy. He is also an active member of the Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Research Group at Massey Business School..

Born in Braga, Portugal, in 1978, he graduated in Industrial Engineering and Management at the University of Minho in 2002 (5-year degree). He completed his PhD in Industrial Engineering in 2008 at the University of Minho. Paulo participates as a Keynote Speaker in Quality and Organizational Excellence international conferences and he is author of several publications in the Quality field. He coordinates several research projects on Quality and also supervises several researchers.

Alan is a benchmarking consultant and researcher (futurist & best practice) supporting the Centre for Organisational Excellence Research and researcher in AI-Human Collaboration in Leadership at Victoria University of Wellington. Prior to this, Alan was Superintendent with 16 years of service at the Singapore Police Force. Alan has won several national and ministry-level awards for community safety and security initiatives, innovation and knowledge management. Alan was also instrumental in the SPF’s attainment of the Singapore Quality Award with Special Commendation. Alan has held directorate positions in organisational development, investigation services & support, and conceptualisation & requirements (technology).

Motto: “From Data to Value”.  PhD from MIT, USA (1993); Full Professor at the University of Coimbra (2010-); Dean of NOVA-IMS at the NOVA University Lisbon (2018-2022); Vice-Rector of the NOVA University Lisbon (2022-); Member of the Portuguese National Parliament (2009-2015); Vice-Rector of the University of Coimbra (2007-2009); receiver of the Feigenbaum Award (1998) by ASQ, the Yoshio Kondo Award (2019) by IAQ and the Grant Medal (2022) by ASQ. Over 30 years of international teaching, research and consulting experience in quality and excellence.

Dr Silcox is the principal of the Strategic Leadership Consulting Group.  He has held CEO, senior management and Board positions in several industries, both in the private and public sectors. Silcox is an International Australian Business Excellence Evaluator and has personally taken an organisation to the stage of being recognised at Prize Level, the top business award in Australia and only the 3rd organisation in the last 30 years to achieve this level.

Harnek is a Business Excellence and Quality Advisor and Technical Expert with the Asian Productivity Organization (APO). He is a former President of the Asian Productivity Organization Quality and Productivity Organization (APQO) and former Chair of the Global Performance Excellence Award (GPEA) Governing Council. Formerly Vice President & Director, Business Excellence at ST Engineering, Harnek also chaired the Quality and Core Business Processes Committee of the Singapore Standards Council and served on the PHC Task Force. He is a Senior Consultant and Lead Assessor with ITEES for the GEMSET initiative, a Gold Jacket Lead Assessor for the Singapore Business Excellence Awards, and has led numerous Singapore Quality Award (SQA) and Business Excellence assessments. He is also an Academician of the International Academy for Quality (IAQ).

Lars Sorqvist is the President-elect of the International Academy for Quality (IAQ) and President of Sandholm Associates. He is also an associate professor in quality management at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and a past professor at the Shanghai University in China. As an advisor and educator, Sorqvist has conducted training and management seminars in a large number of companies and organizations in many countries on most continents. Sorqvist has written many articles and books on​​quality management.

Randeep Sudan is a digital transformation strategist with four decades of experience across public service, international development, and entrepreneurship. A 1983 Indian Administrative Service officer, he helped establish Hyderabad as a leading technology hub. At the World Bank (2005-2018), he served as ICT Practice Manager and global advisor on digital strategies. In 2018, he founded Multiverz, a Singapore-based enterprise using AI and analytics for strategic foresight. Currently consulting for the World Bank, he teaches at IIM Nagpur.

Almas Tazein has contributed numerous best practice and benchmarking articles to BPIR.com (Best Practice Improvement Resource). With a medical degree, she holds a postgraduate diploma in Hospital and Healthcare Management and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification. A former CEO of a Maternity and Children’s Hospital in India, she has served in various roles in healthcare organisations including chains of Fertility & IVF and Child Development Centres. Her leadership yielded successful quality improvement initiatives and bottom line growth. Since 2017, Almas has conducted prolific best practice research for Dubai Government Excellence Program’s (DGEP) Executive Program for Benchmarking.

With an impressive work portfolio, Maria leads key organisational development and performance projects such design, validation and implementation of organisational frameworks, improvement and innovation methodologies, operational effectiveness measurement. She has some great examples of how these initiatives have aligned with wider organisational goals and yielded positive feedback and significant return on investment. This includes an HR Institute of New Zealand Organisational Change and Development Award and two Good Practice Awards with the Association of Tertiary Education Management (ATEM) for Excellence in People and Culture.

Mai Trinh is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of global experience in finance, business strategy, risk management, and M&A. She has held key roles in leading organizations, including CFO at Sun Group and ANZ Bank in Vietnam, Director of Business Strategy & Execution at ANZ Banking Group in Australia, and Assurance Partner at PwC. Mai serves on the boards of several corporations in Vietnam. Her strategic leadership has consistently driven organizational growth and excellence.

Rob is a business improvement professional and civil engineer with more than 50 years’ experience working with Australian and Global organisations. Rob was the Awards Manager for the Australian Quality Council overseeing the business excellence evaluation process for Australia. Before this, Rob worked for over 20 years with Alcoa of Australia in Western Australia in a number of roles covering engineering construction, industrial engineering, information technology management, supply administration and quality development. Previously, Rob worked in New Zealand, Argentina, the U.K., Spain and Peru in various civil engineering roles. Rob has extensive experience in facilitating critical process identification and cycle time reduction projects as well as training groups of people at all levels in team-based problem-solving, quality concepts and improvement processes.

Dale is President and CEO of Global Leadership and Benchmarking Associates, a performance excellence, global benchmarking, and executive leadership focused consulting service. From 2000-2011, Dale was Deputy Executive Director/Senior Executive Officer for the Florida Department of Revenue, the 6th largest state agency in Florida, and winner of the State of Florida Sterling Award. Dale also served in similar performance excellence leadership capacities at the Minnesota Department of Revenue from 1994-2000. And, for 20 years, Dale directed major private sector initiatives for Control Data Corporation, General Mills, and Xerox Corporation.

Trish has spent over 10 years networking and connecting improvement dots, in NZ and across the global community of improvement practitioners, all disciplines, industries, roles, locations. As an active practising CI person, Trish knows it’s the doing that is where the rubber hits the road. Supporting, collaborating, sharing best practice, learning from and with others is a crucial part of us all doing better together. Trish is key in setting up platforms, environments, and systems to make this happen, a specialist in networking, improvement leadership and impact.

Dr. Azizah is a full-time Assistant Professor (Senior Lecturer) at INTI International University, Malaysia. With over 10 years of experience in both academia and industry, she has made distinguished contributions to the field of Educational Technology, particularly in ICT-based service-learning initiatives. She has led several national best practice projects under the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), Malaysia. She has received several awards in the field of educational innovation. Her work is published in indexed scholarly journals. She also served as a Visiting Research Fellow at Simon Fraser University, Canada.

Ron Young is the founder of Knowledge Associates International, who are based at St John’s Innovation Centre, Cambridge U.K. Ron is a leading international expert and thought leader in strategic knowledge and innovation asset management. Ron advised and assisted the UK DTI Innovation Unit in the production of the UK Government White Paper ‘UK Competitiveness in the Knowledge Driven Economy’. Ron is a member of the ISO International Standards workgroups for Knowledge Management, Innovation Management and Asset Management and consults to the United Nations, World Bank, European Commission, and the inter-governmental Asian Productivity Organization. Ron is a joint author and editor of many knowledge management/intellectual capital books.