Ken Dean

Background

About Ken Dean

Over the course of his career, Ken has gained a broad range of executive experience across industries (consumer packaged goods, durable manufacturing and food), and across functions (manufacturing management, quality management, human resources, sales). This diverse background has enabled him to achieve outstanding business results as well as academic, government, and industry recognition. Ken founded the Quality Systems Group (QSG) in 1994 while at Nestle Purina and later created an LLC of the same name following his retirement from the company in 2015. QSG’s unique approach improves the effectiveness of traditional quality improvement tools through the use of advanced behavioral science methods. Additionally, QSG supports deployment and use of these tools using proven organization development practices emphasizing employee ownership. While at Nestle Purina, Ken led the Quality Systems Group in designing and implementing customer and employee focused management processes to support cultural change and continuous improvement. These processes were adopted company-wide and integrated into the company’s way of working. These processes were attributed to be a key enabler in the company achieving unprecedented business results as well as numerous “best place to work” awards. Ken led Nestles Purina’s application for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and, because of his contributions, was chosen to accept the 2010 award on behalf of the company. To this day, Nestle Purina remains one of the highest scoring applicants and the only consumer packaged goods company to win this award. Additionally, his work at Nestle Purina became the focus of an American Society for Quality case study and several trade magazine articles, An experienced public speaker, Ken has presented (and key noted) numerous times to the American Marketing Association (AMA), Institute for International Research (IIR), the Baldrige Foundation, American Society for Quality, Conference Board, and Manufactures Alliance. Ken received his Bachelor of Science in Commerce from the University of Louisville and an MBA in Management from Hofstra University. He served on active duty with the Navy for five years and later served in Navy Reserve retiring with the rank of Captain.