University of St. Thomas

Interests and expertise

Quality systems, quality management, continuous improvement, organization change, internal assessment, supplier quality, applied ergonomics and psychology

Career

John has over 35 years of experience in leading company-wide quality management efforts, evaluating organizational processes, and leading teams to implement change. Fechter has worked on continuous improvement programs in high-tech computer, financial services, and manufacturing companies. In his present position at Medtronic, Inc., Fechter is working as a Lean Sigma Deployment Leader and Certified Master Black working on operational excellence of product and process.

In Honeywell Information Systems he was vice president of Quality and Customer Satisfaction, and at KeyCorp he was senior vice president for Quality, Education and Training. Early in his career, he worked as an engineering research psychologist for the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (now NIST - National Institute of Standards and Technology www.nist.gov).

Fechter has served on the Board of Examiners for the U.S. Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and has been a judge for the Massachusetts Quality Award. He has taught at the universities of Southern California (Pentagon Branch), Minnesota, and South Dakota as well as at St. Thomas. He was an officer of the Minnesota Section of ASQ 2002-2004.

He is an ASQ Certified Quality Manager and Certified Quality Auditor.

Education

B.S. 1968 Psychology, Montana State University
M.S. 1969 Applied Science, Montana State University
Ph.D. 1972 Psychology (Ergonomics Specialty), University of South Dakota