Freese and Nichols Inc. Board Chairman Bob Pence is being honored with a Leadership Excellence Award from the Baldrige Foundation, supporter of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program.
The Foundation Awards for Leadership Excellence recognize individuals in business, government, health care and the nonprofit world who “help thousands of organizations across the country to improve their performance” using the Baldrige framework, a foundation press release said.
“Baldrige makes health care safer and more accessible, education more effective, businesses more efficient and customer-focused, cyber systems more secure, governments more streamlined, and nonprofits more responsive across the spectrum,” Foundation President and CEO Al Faber said.
Awards will be presented April 9 at a Baldrige Foundation luncheon during the 31st Annual Quest for Excellence Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.
Freese and Nichols in 2010 became the first engineering and architecture firm to be chosen for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the highest national recognition for performance excellence that a U.S. organization can receive during Pence’s 15-year tenure as president and CEO.
Applicants are evaluated in seven areas: leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement; analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; and process management and results.
Pence, an accomplished environmental engineer who began his career at Freese and Nichols in 1978, served a three-year term on the Baldrige Board of Overseers in 2014-2017. He is a U.S. Army veteran and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas A&M University.
Freese and Nichols Inc. is a professional consulting firm that plans, designs and manages infrastructure projects serving clients across the Southeast and Southwest United States.
– FWBP Staff