This is the fourth installment of a five-part series.

As detailed in our third installment, ASQE is a new legal entity connected to the ASQ we all know and love. It’s a trade organization to which organizations, rather than individuals, can belong. Current membership is about 180 organizations, including Procter & Gamble, FedEx, and the IRS. Dozens have joined in 2022 alone.  

Some weeks ago, Quality Digest Editor-in-Chief Dirk Dusharme and I attended ASQ’s 2022 World Conference on Quality and Improvement (WCQI) in Anaheim, California. It was the first in-person conference since Covid hit the world, and attendance was just over 1,000, about a third of what had been the norm.  

ASQ made its leadership available for wide-ranging video interviews covering everything from the future of the quality profession to the organization’s new legal structure. Quality Digest appreciates ASQ’s efforts to help us provide valuable reporting to our readers.  

In all, we conducted five interviews with:
• ASQ’s CEO Ann Jordan
• ASQ’s board of directors
• ASQE’s CEO Jim Templin
• ASQE’s board of directors
• Both CEOs together, talking about their “connected journey”

This fourth installment of the series is our interview with ASQE’s board of directors.  In attendance were:
• Dani Picciotti, ASQE board chair
• Steve Wilson, ASQE board chair-elect
• Jim Templin, ASQE CEO and board member

We started off with a detailed description of what exactly ASQE is, and then dove into the benefits for an organization when they join ASQE. Given all the chatter about risk management within the quality industry the last few years, we asked whether ASQE was addressing it. We pried into the debate about the relevance and usefulness of ISO 9001, and how some organizations use it as a bridge from compliance to excellence. We asked where ASQE might fit into such a transition.  

Finally, we asked board members to summarize by answering this question: In five words or less, what is the quality profession’s future?

The clip below shows the first five minutes of the interview. Listen to the full interview here.