Mike is the Network Director at the ThedaCare Center For Healthcare Value.  He is responsible for overseeing the Healthcare Value Network, a peer-to-peer learning group which helps member organizations across North America learn, share and connect regarding the application of lean healthcare principles. Prior to joining the Center, Mike served as an internal consultant in process improvement as a vice president with the Wheaton Franciscan System, Wheaton Illinois.  Mike then became the health care market development manager at the American Society for Quality, facilitating ASQ’s involvement in health care improvement. Most recently, Mike was a vice president of Operations Improvement at Catholic Health Initiatives, providing performance improvement support, service, and assistance throughout a number of CHI facilities. Mike also served as an Examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award from 1999 - 2004. Mike has been learning, applying and teaching performance excellence principles since he first met Dr. W. Edwards Deming in 1985. Over a nine-year period, he worked briefly with Dr. Deming, supporting him in four of his 4-day seminars. Mike began his health care career as a medical technologist in the U.S. Navy, and then moved to management as a vice president in hospitals after receiving his master’s degree in Health Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1988.