Larry Williams
Larry Williams Larry D. Williams is Williams Community Solutions’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. He is also the HUB Community Liaison for the Travis County Purchasing Office. Larry graduated from Arizona State University with a B.A. in Mass Communications and Media Studies with a minor in Public Policy and Public Service. Larry has twelve years […]
Kris Kriegel
Born and raised in Austin, have a BBA in Management from Baylor and a Masters of Religious Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft Worth, I have served churches as an Executive Pastor for over 27 years in Florida, Oklahoma and Texas. I have chaired the Boards of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce, Main Street Advisory Board and Economic Restructuring Committee for Georgetown and served on the Board of the Williamson County Children’s Advocacy Center. Currently, I am the Vice President for Business Operations at Children At Heart Ministries in Round Rock and am Chairman of the Board for the Williamson County Institute for Excellence for Non-Profits. I have been the Team Lead and Examiner for a number of years using the Baldrige Criteria for Business Performance Excellence for the Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE Award) and serve on the Board of the Quality Texas Foundation.
Sam Zigrossi
Sam Zigrossi has been a Performance Specialist/Consultant, consulting with various types of organizations both small and large, including hospitals, telecommunications consulting company, high technology groups, large energy company, universities, state agencies and chambers of commerce. His accomplishments include: facilitating organization performance assessments, assisted in the development of performance evaluation and salary systems, conducted staffing seminars, facilitated a customer relations process, conducted an energy management assessment process, conducted quality training, conducted leadership training, and conducted a 2-day strategic planning workshop. Sam has been an Adjunct Professor with the Texas State University School of Business, and the Program Director of The University of Texas Charles A. Dana Center. In that capacity he has taught Introduction to Management, Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior and Development, Leadership, and Quality Leadership. He also prepared and developed courses including Instructional Leadership Institute, Preparing for STAAR, and Systemic Intervention Protocol (SIP). Sam’s creative accomplishments include writing a book (The Personnel Advisor: A Handbook for Small/Medium Businesses), publishing scholarly Monographs, and writing various articles. He has presented several Papers at Professional Meetings and is a popular speaker for talks, lectures, and presentations. Tools he developed throughout his career include: Organization Tetrahedron Performance Model that helps assess Organization performance; Performance Assessment Template to assist in assess performance weaknesses and associated potential areas to review for improvement; Discipline of Market Leaders handbook to assess organization strategy; Quality Rubrics for organizations to assess the quality of their processes; Human Resources Assessment Guides to assess the legal and basic HR infrastructure of an organization; Leadership of Change Matrix that assists in evaluation and keeping track of a managed change process; and Systems Model for Improving Student Achievement based on latest research. Education: MBA in Management from Golden State University; MEd in Educational Administration and Educational Psychology from the University of Utah; and BA in Mathematics Education from the University of Utah.
Tony Perez
Tony has worked in the quality field for over 25 years in the defense electronics and commercial electronics industries. He is currently the Program Manager of The University of Texas Center for Performance Excellence involved in enabling and recognizing organizational performance excellence using a Baldrige based assessment process in Texas. He has worked as a Quality System Manager with the Semiconductor Products Sector of Motorola, Inc. in Austin, Texas involved in implementing and maintaining a QS-9000 quality management system, managing the use a Balanced Scorecard, and using the Baldrige criteria to drive organizational performance improvement. Prior to joining Motorola, he was a Quality System Manager at Dell Computer Corporation where he was responsible for leading the implementation and management of a quality management system compliant to ISO 9000 at the company’s manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas. He was also managed Dell’s corporate-wide business process improvement system using the Baldrige criteria and supplier quality management. He has worked at Texas Instruments where he was a Quality Assurance Manager responsible for supplier quality and qualification of purchased electronic components. He also worked at Tracor Aerospace as a Quality Engineer involved in the production of defense electronic equipment. Prior to this he served as a commissioned officer in the U. S. Air Force. He is a Fellow with the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and is an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer and Quality Auditor. He is a long time member of the ASQ Austin chapter having served as chairman, treasurer, and various committees. He has served on the U.S. Commerce Department Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Board of Examiners in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1999, and 2000. He served on the Panel of Judges and Board of Overseers for the Texas Award for Performance Excellence 1993-2007. During 1991 – 1999 he served on the Board of Directors and Panel of Judges for the Greater Austin Quality Award which he co-founded in 1991. He taught quality assurance courses at Austin Community College and has served on industrial advisory boards for Texas A&M University and the University of Texas. He earned a Master of Science degree from the University of Arkansas and Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M University.
Sue Bunton
Sue Bunton is a human performance specialist with a track record for achieving organizational excellence and the development of peak performance models for organizations. She is a Certified Harless Peak Performance System Analyst and Trainer and is certified in Behavioral Interviewing. As a Human Resources Manager for a high-tech multi-national corporation she has experience integrating processes, systems and technology to support human performance. Performance Analysis and Improvement
Microsoft – Managed or was an analysis team member for projects in five separate divisions:- Competitive analysis (Linux threat), product evangelism, service excellence initiative, enterprise solution sales, human performance focused job descriptions and hiring guides, original equipment manufacturers re-organization
Caterpillar – Apprentice program design and training systems integration
Exemplary Performance LLC and Saba, Inc. – Trainer for Harless Peak Performance Systems
ZiaTech – Human performance systems and acquisition readiness
Human Resources Management
Training and Development
Program Initiatives focused on quality improvement, effective selling, customer service, and
remote personnel management
Project Management – new information technology systems
Compensation – field sales
Professional Development Programs for Human Resources Manager
Mergers, Acquisitions, Reorganizations
Due Diligence – Human Resources
Change Management
Integrations Strategies
Performance Support
Sue has been the President of S.T.E.P Performance since 1997. S.T.E.P. looks at systems, technology, environment and people to help organizations optimize organizational effectiveness. The key is to identify and replicate exemplary accomplishments (outputs of value that contribute to organizational goals), the criteria that define the value, the behaviors that produce the accomplishments. S.T.E.P. is a member of an established network of certified organizational analysts
using the award-winning ABCD System. S.T.E.P employs an integrated, holistic model that provides a framework for understanding and enabling exemplary performance in any organization. Sue has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Texas Tech University.
Ronald Swain
Dr. Swain is a servant-leader and social entrepreneur, who formed Swain Consulting
Services, LLC (SCS) in 2013 after a forty-plus year career in higher education
administration. SCS’s mission is to facilitate individual’s development to achieve their maximum potential and to lead organizations and systems toward performance excellence and to do so with human compassion. Swain joined the Senior Staff at Southwestern University in August 2000 as Senior Advisor to the President for Strategic Planning and Assessment. His responsibilities included serving as the University’s Accreditation Liaison to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). In addition to his higher education career, he is a retired clergyman of the Texas Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. A native of Macon, Georgia, Dr. Swain holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Education degrees from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA; a Master of Divinity degree from the Shaw Divinity School in Raleigh, NC; a Master of Education degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and a Doctor of Education degree from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. In addition, Dr. Swain has completed postdoctoral study at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education’s Institute on Educational Management. He also has earned Certificates of Completion from the Society of College and University Planning’s (SCUP) Planning Institute and The Quality Texas Foundation’s Organizational Excellence Examiner Training Program. With over four decades of experience in higher education administration, he began his professional higher education career in the Student Affairs Division at Duquesne in 1970. In 1972, he moved to North Carolina State University at Raleigh, where he worked as a counselor and area coordinator in residence life and an adjunct member of the faculty. Over the next 20 years, Dr. Swain served in several positions at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, the oldest historically black college in the Southeastern United States. His last position at Shaw was Vice President for Institutional Advancement and Planning. In 1994, he became national director for the final phase of The United Negro College Fund’s Campaign 2000. He subsequently served as the 15th President of Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. Dr. Swain, a community development advocate who strives to create a high quality of life for all people, is active in the First United Methodist Church and the Rotary Club of Georgetown, TX and the Providence Place Board of Directors in San Antonio. He has represented Southwestern University on the City of Georgetown’s Economic Development Commission and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and is past Chairman of both organizations. Dr. Swain is past Chair of the Board of Directors for The Georgetown Project, Habitat for Humanity of Williamson County, and Texas Life-sciences Collaboration Center (TLCC) and currently serves as Chair of The Williamson County Institute for Excellence in Nonprofits. He is also a member of the President’s Advisory Council for the Texas Methodist Foundation.
Prior to relocating to Georgetown, Dr. Swain was active with the Greater Raleigh (NC) Chamber of Commerce where he served on the Buy Local Task Force, the Marshall (TX) Chamber of Commerce where he was a member of the Board of Directors and served as chair of the membership committee, and the Marshall Economic Development Corporation as chair of the marketing committee. Dr. Swain has been a consultant and evaluator for the United States Department of Education’s Division of Postsecondary Education. He has served as a member of the National Society of Fund-Raising Executive Advisory Council for the International Education Conference, and chairman of the board of directors for the National Society of Fund-Raising Executives, Triangle (NC) Chapter. Previously, he served on National Council for the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at The George Washington University. In June 2000, Dr. Swain was honored by his alma mater when he was inducted into the Century Club of Distinguished Duquesne University Alumni. In June 2004, he received the Mount de Sales Academy Career Achievement Award. Swain was the first African American male graduate of the Academy. In January 2012, Dr. Swain was recognized with the Owen W. Sherrill Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce. This award is presented to persons whose dedication to economic development over a number of years has significantly enhanced the creation of jobs and wealth in the community.
Steven Cox
WHO AM I…
A consultant with extensive global leadership experience leading large organizations with strong
subject matter expertise in process excellence, project management and process & system assessment.
Vic Figurelli
After a career with Shell Chemical Company, Vic Figurelli moved to Georgetown in 1998. He has been involved in a number of community activities, serving on the boards of Partners in Education, Senior University Georgetown, Habitat for Humanity of Williamson County, and the Georgetown Symphony Society.
Santos Martino
Santos is a Facilities Maintenance Manager who works with The City of Austin to direct the activities of maintenance personnel who are responsible for performing general maintenance work on city buildings, facilities and grounds. Santos has conducted several LSS projects for the City of Austin to improve efficiencies and reduce cost to tax paying citizens.
Ashley Kees
Ashley Kees has spent his 30-year professional career with 3M in operations management including leadership positions such as Global Manufacturing Director, Plant Manager, Lean SixSigma Black Belt and Product Development Supervisor. Ashley’s career is highlighted by a proven leadership track record, in depth operational knowledge, and broad industry experience. His industry experience includes a broad range of industries from electrical construction to electronics to consumer goods to health care to automotive.