Prof. Rick Edgeman (USA)

Rick Edgeman joined the Shingo Institute at Utah State University in August 2015 as research director and clinical professor of management. Dr. Edgeman continues to serve as a visiting professor of quality management in the Industrial Engineering & Management Division at Uppsala University in Sweden, and sustainability and enterprise performance at Aarhus University in Denmark. His areas of expertise are in sustainable enterprise excellence, six sigma innovation and design, quality management, and social-ecological innovation. With a doctoral degree in statistics and minors in management science and geo-statistics from the University of Wyoming, Dr. Edgeman’s work experience has spanned a wide range of business, engineering and science schools in the U.S. and abroad. A serial academic innovator, Dr. Edgeman created a graduate Six Sigma Innovation & Design certificate program, led M.S. statistical science curriculum innovation enabling full online degree provision, and contributed to creating the VIEW Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Idaho, where he served as professor and head of the Statistical Science Department. He introduced significant innovation in the QUEST Honors Fellows Program at the University of Maryland that enabled 80% growth, and introduced M.S. and Ph.D. programs in quality and reliability management at the University of North Texas. A six sigma black belt, Dr. Edgeman has been a visiting professor in the Quality & Environmental Management Division at Luleå University (Sweden), EMBA visiting professor at Università della Svizzera Italiana (University of Italian Switzerland) and invited professor at the Versailles Business School – University of Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines (France). He frequently presents international keynote addresses and lectures and is one of only six academics selected for inclusion among 21 Voices of Quality for the 21st Century (American Society for Quality: 2000). Dr. Edgeman previously acted as the founding executive director of the Multinational Alliance for the Advancement of Organizational Excellence and served from 2002 to 2012 on the Academic Advisory Council of Hamdan Bin Mohamed Smart University in Dubai (UAE). He has served on multiple editorial review boards and is currently the associate editor of Total Quality Management & Business Excellence. Dr. Edgeman is also a member of the advisory board for the Sustainability, Ethics and Entrepreneurship Conference.