James
Cupello, Ph.D.
Mr. James Cupello is a research scientist and quality
management expert with a 30-year record of maximizing
quality and productivity in industry, government,
and academia. His areas of expertise include
strategic planning, Six Sigma, market research, research
and development, and new product development. He
is proficient at analyzing complex, persistent problems
and promoting effective solutions to management.
His talent for maximizing quality and productivity
led him to become one of the first individuals to
introduce these private sector methods into the public
sector, and more importantly, into the demanding arena
of research and product development. As
total quality management (TQM) matured into Six Sigma,
Mr. Cupello distinguished himself as an ASQ Certified
Quality Engineer, an ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black
Belt, and then a Master Black Belt.
Mr. Cupello's employment history includes executive
leadership positions in a variety of fields including
aerospace, biophysics, and banking. Most
recently he served as executive director (Six Sigma)
at Clarke American in San Antonio, Texas. Previous
positions in San Antonio include vice president of
quality and productivity at Back of America, president
of Quality Engineering Associates, senior statistical
advisor at the Air Force Research Laboratory, and
director of total quality management at Armstrong
Laboratory, Brooks Air Force Base.
At Thiokol Corporation Space Division (previously
Morton Thiokol Wasatch Operations) in Brigham City,
Utah, Mr. Cupello held several positions of increasing
responsibility (manager of expert systems development,
manager of total quality management planning, and
manager of strategic planning). His achievements
include authoring a 278-page strategic plan, developing
a sales forecasting model for solid rocket motors
for space applications, creating a total quality management
organization in response to the 1986 Challenger incident,
organizing an international conference on probabilistic
risk assessment, and briefing a Department of Defense
technical panel on probabilistic risk assessment.
Prior to joining Thiokol, Mr. Cupello served as assistant
professor and director of the Small Business Institute
at Utah State University. Previously he
was technical director and manager of research and
development at Nutrilite Products, Inc. in Buena Park,
California. Earlier in his career, he served
as a research biophysicist and project manager for
the U.S. Air Force.
A distinguished writer, Mr. Cupello has over 60 publications
(many in refereed journals) and presentations to his
name. In 2001 he co-authored the second
major book on Six Sigma, Managing Six Sigma, with
John Wiley & Sons. A sought-after speaker
on quality, Six Sigma, business strategy, emergency
preparedness, and other topics, Mr. Cupello is known
for his ability to make complex ideas easily understandable.
Education
Ph.D. in Radiation Biophysics, University of Kansas,
Lawrence, Kansas
Executive MBA, School of Management and Strategic
Studies, La Jolla, California
M.S. in Environmental Health / Health Physics, Rutgers
University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
MBA in Marketing, University of California, Los Angeles,
California
B.S. in Basic Sciences, United States Air Force Academy,
Colorado Springs, Colorado
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