NC State of Business

We've been at this blogging thing almost a year now, and I think it's starting to catch on. We appreciate you spending time with us, and if there's something specific you think we should write about, please let us know!

This month we're adding three new bloggers to our line-up, which reminds me that I haven't introduced you to our regular bloggers. I'm very happy with the variety of specialists who regularly add their inputs to the blog. Our current bloggers are:

Annah Poteat and Dr. Lukasz Mazur share a spot on the blog, and concentrate primarily on health care issues. Both Annah and Lukasz are leading the way in North Carolina in adapting "lean" principles to health care.

Bill Iacovelli is one of our "lean" specialists, and works out of the Charlotte area. I particularly liked his recent post about what he learned from his garage door about Total Productive Maintenance.

Charlie Parrish, PE, is a professional engineer and master of all things environmental. He's our lead specialist in the ISO 14001 environmental management standard, and a big player in our new sustainability services.

Dr. Dave Boulay is the Deputy Director of IES and the Director of the North Carolina Manufacturing Extension Partnership. I appreciate his insights on leadership and management.

David Yates is new to the IES blog, but he's one of our most experienced specialists in "lean" management and manufacturing techniques. He's based out of the Gateway Technology Center in Rocky Mount, but serves clients all over the state.

Gene Beneduce is one of our most productive account managers. Based in Charlotte, Gene takes the IES message throughout the southern Piedmont region of Anson, Cabarrus, Rowan, Stanly and Union counties.

Gene Fornaro, PE, and Joe Sauve anchor our Growth Strategies product line. In particular, they champion the "Eureka! Winning Ways" scientific approach to generating and evaluating new ideas for businesses.

Holli Singleton is another new blogger from the environmental, health, safety and sustainability world. Holli conducts work site assessments at North Carolina companies to ensure their compliance with regulations; she's also a certified Six Sigma Green Belt with experience applying quality improvement principles in health care.

Nora Milley also joins the blog this month. She is one of our most versatile service providers: she specializes in quality management systems but also supports lean, Six Sigma and project management programs. In July, Nora will take over the North Carolina Awards for Excellence program. And if you need some physical exertion added to your technical assistance, Nora is also a terrific Zumba instructor!

Phil Mintz leads a team of specialists in quality management and environmental, health, safety and sustainability. Phil is also the IES focal point for energy management, and is working on the effort to develop an ISO standard for energy management.

Sonja Hughes is based in our Greensboro office, and stays involved in many different IES product areas. She's a Six Sigma Black Belt, one of the primary developers of our project management training courses, and has implemented several ISO 9000 certification projects.

Steve Laton is the IES product line leader for all of our "lean" management services. Steve is based in Albemarle, but works with clients across the state. He also developed a Senior Management Coaching program based on his years of industry experience.

Wendy Laing is our environmental, health, safety and sustainability product line leader. Wendy directs the Southeastern OSHA Training Institute Education Center at NC State, and coordinates our MESH (Manager of Environmental Safety and Health) Certificate Program.

Our blogging team represents about 15% of IES, which I consider to be good participation for such a new endeavor. And just like IES as a whole, our team represents many different parts of North Carolina and many different specialties. As we say here, we operate "from Waynesville to Williamston" -- that is, from the mountains in the west to the east coast, across every part of the state.

I hope, now that you know a little more about our bloggers, that you'll stop in even more often.