Cooper’s Montalbine Named ASQ 'Quality Leader of the Year'

Cooper Tire & Rubber has announced that its Global Quality, Operational Excellence and Information Technology vice president Carl Montalbine has been named "Quality Leader of the Year" by the American Society for Quality's Automotive Division. The ASQ Automotive Division Chairman Ha Dao, who nominated Montalbine for the award, commented that “Carl is most deserving of this prestigious recognition.”

In his acceptance speech Montalbine said “this award is less about my vision and leadership than it is a reflection of the teamwork and dedication Cooper people exhibit every day. It was the entire team’s creativity, initiative and hard work that helped us exceed expectations and surpass our goals. Cooper is well known in the global tyre industry for producing high quality tyres and in my role I am responsible for supporting the company’s strategic imperative by continuing to drive quality and process improvements in the manufacturing and administrative processes.”

Dao said he nominated Montalbine for his visionary leadership, ability to drive transformational change, demonstration of customer focus, demonstration of the quality philosophy, demonstration of sustained results and building of organisational capabilities. Dao noted that Carl’s accomplishments include establishing a lean six sigma programme at Cooper; achieving 34 per cent more than expected savings; achieving ISO 9000 certifications in all plants globally; implementing a global enterprise resource planning initiative; driving a cultural change that embraces continuous improvement; and sharing best practices to spread the quality improvement.

A native of New York, Montalbine earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York. Montalbine began his career in 1975 with Fairchild Republic in New York, where he served as lead engineer and manager of technical systems on the A-10A programme. He joined Cooper in 2007 as vice president of global quality and operational excellence. He also is a certified black belt.