Brandt Named to Quality Award Board of Overseers

William K. Brandt, managing partner of Impact Planning Group, Greenwich, Conn., and an adjunct professor of marketing at Columbia University, has been appointed by the Commerce Department to serve a two-year term on the board of overseers for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Founded in 1979, Impact Planning Group provides consulting services and education programs in market planning and business strategy development and implementation to organizations worldwide. Since 1976, Brandt has been director of Columbia University's executive programs in sales, marketing and international management.

The board of overseers reviews the progress of the award program and reports their findings and recommendations to the Secretary of Commerce and the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Others on the board include Anthony P. Carnevale, Educational Testing Service; Emma Chappell, United Bank of Philadelphia; Mary Jane England, Washington Business Group on Health; Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard University; Frank J. Pipp, Xerox Corp. (retired); and Ray Stata, Analog Devices. Several additional appointments will be forthcoming.

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was established by Congress in 1987 to promote quality awareness, to recognize quality achievements of U.S. companies and to publicize successful quality strategies. In conjunction with private industry, NIST manages the award program. The award is not given for specific products or services, but in recognition of a company's business excellence and quality achievement. Currently, two awards may be given annually in each of three categories: manufacturing, service and small business. Since 1988, 24 companies have won the award.

A non-regulatory agency of the Commerce Department's Technology Administration, NIST promotes U.S. economic growth by working with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements and standards.