Interests and expertise

Continuous process improvement training, customer satisfaction survey design and deployment, integration of quality planning with strategic planning.

Career

Gary Floss has held quality executive positions with Control Data (now Ceridian), Medtronic, and Marvin Windows and Doors. Gary previously served as the Managing Director of BlueFire Partners, a consulting firm specializing in providing services to organizations to improve enterprise-wide business excellence. His quality leadership experience includes applying the principles of process management and continuous improvement to a wide range of application areas including development, manufacturing, field support, customer requirements and relationship management, and administrative support functions.

Gary served on the Quality Research Committee of GOAL/QPC (a training and consulting organization) for seven years.  He is serving in his 29^th year on the Baldrige Board of Examiners, and is a past chair of the Panel of Judges for the Board. Gary was a principal designer in establishing the Minnesota State Quality Award in 1991 and served on the MCQ Board of Directors and as a judge. He serves as a trainer, judge, and examiner and is a member of the Board of Overseers for the Baldrige-based American Health Care Association (long-term care) quality awards. He has served as a judge for the Performance Excellence Network, the Army Communities of Excellence program, and as an examiner for the Asia-Pacific Quality Award program.

In addition, Gary served on the Visiting Committee for Advanced Technology for 6 years that provides an advisory role to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He also serves as a facilitator/assessor with the Veritas Institute (affiliated with the University of St. Thomas School of Business), which uses the Baldrige model to assess catholic hospitals against the six principles of the Catholic Identity Matrix. Trained as an electrical engineer, he has held technical, consultant, and management positions in multiple functional areas in his professional career.

Education

B.S. 1964, Electrical Engineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence
Graduate Study 1964-65, Electrical Engineering, University of Minnesota