RICK EDGEMAN, PH.D.

RICK EDGEMAN, PHD, PROFESSOR & CHAIR OF MANAGEMENT

ROBBINS COLLEGE OF BUSINESS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP - FORT HAYS STATE UNIVERSITY

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Rick Edgeman is Professor & Chair of the Management Department in the Robbins College of Business & Entrepreneurship at Fort Hays State University (Kansas). He is concurrently Professor of Sustainability & Enterprise Performance in the Department of Business Development & Technology (BTECH) at Aarhus University (Denmark), where he has continuously engaged since 1997 and was previously a tenured full professor. BTECH combines business and engineering to form the programs in which Rick engages: Technology-Based Business Development, and Global Management & Manufacturing. He is also Engineering Operations Management (EOM) Honorary Professor at the Technology & Innovation Department – Faculty of Engineering at the University of Southern Denmark (Odense), and Faculty Fellow in the Shingo Institute in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University.

 

Rick’s inter-multi-and-trans disciplinary orientation contributed to prior posts spanning schools of business, engineering, and science. Among those were: QUEST Professor & QUEST Honors Fellows Program Executive Director in the Robert H. Smith School of Business and A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland; Shingo Institute Research Director & Professor of Management Practice in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University – Home of the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence; Statistical Science Department Professor & Chair at the University of Idaho; Professor of Computer Information Systems & Center for Quality & Productivity Improvement Director at Colorado State University; and  Professor of Quality Sciences (20%) in the Industrial Engineering & Management Department – Uppsala Engineering School at Uppsala University (Sweden). Aarhus University, Uppsala University, and the University of Maryland are among the world’s 100 leading universities per many ranking systems. 

 

Rick has served in research, instructional, and faculty/administrator mentor roles as visiting professor at the Faculty of Economics Executive MBA Program at the University of Lugano (Switzerland), Division of Quality & Environmental Management at Luleå University (Sweden), Faculty of Management & Economics at Tomas Bata University (Czech Republic), and the Versailles Business School – University of Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines (France). Invited lectures include deliveries at Oxford University (on behalf of the Georgetown University McDonough Graduate School of Management), Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, National University of Singapore, and National Science Foundation. In 1992 he was appointed Special Congressional Fulbright Senior Scholar at Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovak Republic) under the Securing Eastern European Democracy (SEED) Program, with delayed notification preventing appointment acceptance.

 

Sustainable Enterprise Excellence, Six Sigma Innovation & Design, Quality Management and Social-Ecological Innovation define his research domains, as does Complex Management Systems – the topic of his 2019 book, published by Routledge –(https://www.crcpress.com/Complex-Management-Systems-and-the-Shingo-Model-Foundations-of-Operational/Edgeman/p/book/9781138626225#googlePreviewContainer). Recent research acknowledgements include 2016 International Journal of Productivity & Performance Management Article of the Year, 2017 Canadian Quality Congress Most Highly Commended Research Paper, and keynote addresses at conferences in Spain (2017), Holland (2015), and Ireland (2015). Rick co-chaired the 2014 Performance Management Association Global Conference co-hosted by Cambridge University and Aarhus University. He has authored 130+ journal articles and book chapters and another 120+ published book reviews and conference articles with work appearing in such journals as Business Strategy & the Environment, Corporate Governance, Communications of the ACM, Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, IEEE Transactions on Reliability, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, The TQM Journal, Journal of Management Systems, Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, Business Process Management Journal, and The American Statistician. He Co-edited Measuring Business Excellence and is Associate Editor of both Total Quality Management & Business Excellence and Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering: Combat & Military Engineering. He serves or has served on the Editorial Review Boards of The Six Sigma Forum, Quality Engineering, International Journal of Product Development, International Journal of Manufacturing Technology & Management, International Journal of Business Performance Management, International Journal of Society Systems Science, International Journal of Six Sigma & Competitive Advantage, and the Business & Entrepreneurship Journal. Rick’s work at the intersection of sustainability, quality management, and innovation led to service on the Executive Advisory Board of the World Association for Sustainable Development (WASD) – see: http://www.wasd.org.uk/news/policyresearch/.  

 

Globally, Rick is one of only six academicians selected for inclusion among 21 Voices of Quality for the 21st Century (American Society for Quality: 2000). As a serial academic innovator, he created a graduate Six Sigma Innovation & Design certificate program, led MS Statistical Science curriculum innovation enabling full online degree provision, and contributed to creating the VIEW Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Idaho. He introduced significant innovation enabling 80% growth in the QUEST Honors Fellows Program at the University of Maryland, and developed M.S. and PhD programs in Quality & Reliability Management at the University of North Texas. Rick was Founding Executive Director of the Multinational Alliance for the Advancement of Organizational Excellence (1998-2002) and served from 2002-2012 on the Academic Advisory Council of Hamdan Bin Mohamed Smart University in Dubai (UAE) – a board of a dozen individuals that included Armand V. Feigenbaum, H. James Harrington, and Yoshio Kondo. Honors include Marquis Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World in Quality, Manchester Who’s Who Among Executives & Professionals and Honors Edition, Marquis Who’s Who Among American Teachers, and Marquis Who’s Who Among Scientists & Engineers.

 

EDUCATION

 

YEAR      DEGREE         UNIVERSITY                                MAJOR 

 

1983           Ph.D.                  University of Wyoming                          Statistics (College of Business)

                                              W. Edwards Deming Outstanding Doctoral Student Award

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1979           M.S.                    University of Northern Colorado           Research & Statistical Methods

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1977-78      Study                  Kansas State University                       Statistics (M.S. Coursework)

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1977           B.S.                     Colorado State University-Pueblo        Psychology (Minor: Math/Statistics)

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2004           Black Belt            Villanova University                              Six Sigma (Innovation & Design)              

 

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(CON)CURRENT APPOINTMENTS

 

Fort Hays State University                                                                                                    June 2018 – Present

Professor & Chair                                                                                                                  Management Department

Robbins College of Business & Economics

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Aarhus University - Denmark                                                                                                January 2012 – Present

Professor of Sustainability & Performance (Previously in Tenured Full Professor Position)                                                                          

Interdisciplinary Ctr. for Organizational Arch. and Business Development & Technology Department

Aarhus School of Business & Social Sciences                                                                    Converted to 20% Appt.: August 2015 –

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Southern Denmark University – Denmark                                                                            February 2018 – February 2023                             

Honorary Professor of Engineering Operations Management (Five-Year Appointment)        

Department of Technology & Innovation                                                                               Faculty of Engineering

   

Utah State University                                                                                                             2015 – 2018

Shingo Institute Research Director                                                                                        Professor of Management Practice

Department of Management                                                                                                 Jon M. Huntsman School of Business

Shingo Faculty Research Fellow                                                                                           August 2018 – Ongoing

Shingo Prize Examiner                                                                                                          2019 – Ongoing

Shingo Alumni                                                                                                                       2019 – Ongoing

 

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PRIOR in UNITED STATES

 

University of Idaho                                                                                                                 2004 – December 2011

Professor of Statistics & Inaugural Department Chair

Statistical Science Department                                                                                              College of Science

Adjunct Professor of Business & Economics                                                                         College of Business & Economics                               

                                                                                                

University of Maryland                                                                                                           2001 – 2004

QUEST Professor & Executive Director of the QUEST Honors Fellows Program

Robert H. Smith School of Business and A. James Clark School of Engineering

Decision, Operations & Information Technologies Department, Smith School

Colorado State University                                                                                                      1988 – 2001

Professor 1993 – 2001 / Associate Professor 1988 – 1993                                                                  

Center for Quality & Productivity Improvement (Founding Director)

Computer Information Systems Department                                                                         College of Business

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University of North Texas                                                                                                       1986 – 1988

Assistant Professor                                                                                                                Information Tech. & Decision Science Dept.

College of Business Administration

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Rochester Institute of Technology                                                                                          1985 – 1986

Assistant Professor                                                                                                                 Graduate Statistics Department

J.D. Hromi Ctr. for Quality & Applied Statistics                                                                        Kate Gleason College of Engineering

        

Bradley University                                                                                                                   1983 – 1985  

Asst. Prof.  of Finance & Quant. Methods and Caterpillar Tractor Company Research Foundation Fellow

Foster College of Business Administration                                                                                   

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PRIOR INTERNATIONAL

 

De Montfort University – Leicester, UK                              Leicester Castle Business School      

Honorary Professor of Lean Six Sigma                              March 2019 (Executive Program Delivery)

 

Uppsala University – Sweden                                            November 2014 – March 2017

Professor of Quality Management (20%)                           Quality Sciences Division

Industrial Engineering & Management Department           Faculty of Engineering

 

Tomas Bata University – Czech Republic                           April 2017

Visiting Professor of Management & Economics                Faculty of Management & Economics   

 

University of Lugano – Switzerland                                    March 2014 / March 2016

EMBA Professor of Lean Six Sigma                                   Faculty of Economics

University of Italian Switzerland (Lugano)   /                      Università della Svizzera Italiana

 

Luleå University of Technology – Sweden                          Autumn 2000 / Lectures through 2007

Visiting Professor of Quality Sciences                                Quality & Environmental Management Division

Business Excellence & Sustainable Development              Quality Technology & Statistics Division

 

University of Versailles – France                                         July 2000

Visiting Professor                                                                European TQM Masters’ Program

 

Aarhus School of Business – Denmark                              Visiting Professor of Quality Mgt.  (1997–1998)

Quality & Innovation Research Group                                Colorado State University Sabbatical Leave   

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