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The Center for Business Performance Improvement (CBPI) was created in 2007 through the Engineering Management Program at the University of Colorado. The Center's mission is to provide a one-stop shop for businesses looking for solutions in our areas of expertise.
Our People
 Dr. Luftig serves as a faculty and student advisor for the Center. He joined the Engineering Management Program in August, 2005 as the W. Edwards Deming Professor of Management after teaching at CU-Boulder for seven years in the Leeds School of Business and the Department of Applied Mathematics in the College of Engineering. Prior to working at CU, Dr. Luftig was Founder and President of his own consulting firm specializing in the Quality Sciences, Applied Research, and Business Performance Improvement. His firm annually employed 35 - 40 full-time professional and administrative staff members, and served a number of Fortune 100 and 500 firms in North America, South America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. Dr. Luftig was also a principal in the Weldaloy Corporation, a firm specializing in non-ferrous alloy castings and specialty machined parts.
Dr. Luftig's experience in higher education includes an assistant professorship at SUNY at Oswego; an associate professorship at the University of Northern Iowa where he also served as director of graduate studies; and multiple positions at Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he started as a professor and department head, and ultimately became the associate dean of the College of Technology while he held the Ford - EED endowed chair in research, development, and training in statistical methods. It was in this capacity that Dr. Luftig worked with Dr. W. Edwards Deming in the transformation of Ford Motor Company, initiated when Don Peterson brought Dr. Deming into Ford in the early 1980's. Dr. Luftig has also won many awards including: Graduate Professor of the Year at the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business, Procter & Gamble Teaching Excellence Award, Frascona Teaching Excellence Award, SOAR Teaching Award.
The author of more than 70 publications, including three books and a number of journal articles, Dr. Luftig received his BS from the SUNY College at Buffalo; a MEd from Bowling Green State University in Ohio; and a PhD from the University of Minnesota.
Steven Ouellette - Chief Consultant
Steve Ouellette is an instructor in the Lockheed-Martin Engineering Management Program at the University of Colorado and Director of the Center for Business Performance Improvement at CU. He also writes a monthly column for Inside Six Sigma called “The Six Sigma Heretic.” Over his career he has worked on both sides of corporate change. As an engineer, he experienced change as an employee of Alcoa, where he learned much about the practical implementation and implications of cultural revolution. He enjoyed the results of this process so much that he joined the consulting firm Luftig & Warren International (LWI), where he worked as a consultant and change agent in a variety of industries including primary metals extraction and manufacture, baking, distribution, assembly, and auto parts manufacturing. During this time he was principle in developing and enhancing LWI's Six Sigma materials. Steve is a Thomas J. Watson Fellow with B.S. in metallurgical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and an M.S. in Engineering Management from the University of Colorado. He has also earned a Black Belt certificate from Motorola University and a Master Black Belt from LWI.
Dr. Barbara Lawton - Executive Director
 Barbara Lawton is a teacher, executive business coach and business consultant. Her 20 years of professional practice has centered on increasing organizational performance and on the process of change and human development it entails.
Dr. Lawton is the Lockheed Martin Professor of Management and Program Chair for the Engineering Management Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is the last student of W. Edwards Deming, the father of Japan 's Quality revolution, and her work continues the evolution of Quality Management through integration of concepts and practices from systems thinking, dynamic evolution, organizational learning and change, and knowledge management.
Her corporate experience includes VP for Business & Quality Processes at Storage Technology Corporation, a $2.4B provider of electronic storage solutions. Here she supported development of critical competencies by leading the evolution of Knowledge Management. Her prior corporate experience is as Global Director of Total Quality for Albany International, where she designed and facilitated the adoption of Quality Management in 13 different countries. She has also been the Chief Research Officer for Ignite!, Inc., and Board Member for Jones Education Company.
She holds a B.S. in Biology from The American University, a M.A. in Statistics from The Pennsylvania State University, a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Wyoming, and has completed Columbia University 's Management Development Program.
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About the Center
