Mayberry Chair of Excellence

National Quality Award

Dean Bell Serves as U.S. Representative to National Quality Award

During 1996 and 1997, Dean Bob Bell spent the last week of November and first week of December in Mauritius, a small island nation in the Indian Ocean. He served on the Panel of Judges for the Mauritius National Quality Award. Mauritius is a small democracy, with an economy much like that of Hawaii. Tourism is the largest business, with agriculture (sugarcane) and textiles next in importance. In an attempt to develop closer economic ties to the European Economic Community and the U.S., Mauritius designed a national quality award to identify its most competitive businesses. The award is patterned after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, and after the Tennessee Quality Award. Each year since 1994, Mauritius has invited a U.S. representative who is familiar with both awards to serve on the Panel of Judges for their national award. Bell has served on the Board of Examiners for the Baldrige Award and serves on the Panel of Judges and the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Quality Award.

In Mauritius, Dean Bell led site visits to the companies that were finalists for the 1997 award. He worked with the Panel of Judges to select the award winners who were announced at the World Quality Congress held in Port Louis, Mauritius, on December 2-4, 1997. Bell also spoke at the Quality Congress and presented lectures at the University of Mauritius. The trip was funded by the World Bank.