Hugh Brown has served as Chief Executive Officer of St. David's Georgetown Hospital since 2007. He assumed his role shortly after the hospital was acquired by St. David’s HealthCare, a public-private partnership between HCA and the Austin-based St. David’s Foundation. In 2014 St. David’s HealthCare received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the highest quality award given to any business by the federal government. In addition, for the past six years St. David’s Georgetown Hospital has specifically been recognized as a “100 Top Hospital”, and as a “Top 5% Hospital in the U.S.” for clinical quality.

Mr. Brown earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his Master of Business Administration degree from Winthrop University. After college, he served as a U.S. Navy lieutenant on a fast-attack nuclear-powered submarine based out of Groton, CT. He then worked as a Certified Personnel Consultant before entering the healthcare industry in 1992 where he worked his way up from being a registration clerk and office supervisor to becoming the Chief Operating Officer at a large HCA tertiary referral regional medical center in Myrtle Beach, SC.

Mr. Brown is actively involved in his community including serving on numerous not-for-profit boards and teaching a weekly adult Bible study at his church in Georgetown.

BaldrigeCoach

KAY KENDALL is CEO and principal of BaldrigeCoach, Inc., a private consulting firm in Texas and a member of the Baldrige Connect program. The firm predominately works with organizations committed to using the Baldrige Excellence Framework to increase employee engagement and customer loyalty, and to improve results. BaldrigeCoach has worked with 21 Baldrige Award recipients, 38 top-level state award recipients, and 16 AHCA Gold Award recipients as clients.

Kay is an Alumni Examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Board of Examiners from 1996 through 2018. She served a three-year term on the Baldrige Panel of Judges. She also served five years as a Judge for CAPE and eight years as a Judge for the (former) VA Carey Program. She has served on the PiPEx Panel of Judges since 2012 and is the current chair. She has also supported various Alliance Programs as an “added” examiner and was a Master Examiner for the AHCA/NCAL program for four years. She served five years as a Director-at-Large for the Alliance. She has facilitated examiner training at the national level and for several Alliance programs. She has served as a Technical Editor for the Baldrige program since 2002. She was also on the Alliance Panel of Judges Standardization Committee in 2016. 

Kay holds a BS degree in Microbiology from Purdue University and an MBA from the University of Arizona.

Blaze Performance Solutions

In the past 30 years Kent has helped 100’s of organizations gain 100’s of Millions dollars through growth in top line revenue, sales growth, client acquisition, process, productivity and quality improvements, and reduction in turnover. 

He has conducted over 2,000 days of Strategy & Execution Consulting, Leadership Development, and process improvement work for these organizations. His clients (past and present) include FedEx, Nissan, Honda, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Toyota, Wal-Mart, Nike, Eastman Chemical, U.S. Army, NHC, Covenant Transport, USXPress, ABF Freight, ServiceMaster, First Tennessee Bank, Volunteer Bank, Jewelry Television, Pilot, MLGW, Halton, NGK Metals and The State of Tennessee to name a few.

Kent has lived all over America and in Europe He graduated from the University of Alabama; where he completed a B.S. in Business Administration/Finance and an MBA (all in four years) graduating with Honors.

Kent’s work experience has varied tremendously. Prior to Co-Founding BPS he spent 24 years with Franklin Covey as a Managing Director leading a large Sales and Consulting Team, Consultant and Client Partner. He was a Soviet Intelligence Analyst in Europe, a Financial Manager and Operations Leader with a Fortune 100 company along with several other jobs along the way.

Kent and his wife (the love of his life) have been married for 35 years and have three amazing children. He loves swimming, running, cycling, Marital Arts, working out, and hanging out with his family. Kent continues to be goal oriented earning a black belt on his 40th birthday, running a marathon for his 45th birthday, completing a mile swim for his 50th and recently completing multiple Sprint Triathalons. 

Kent’s new Leadership book “Everyone Can Lead” is available on Amazon.

Sonja Wulff has dedicated the past 15 years of her career to performance excellence and brings unique Baldrige experience as an award recipient, examiner, judge, and consultant. During her decade with Baldrige Recipient Poudre Valley Health System, she wrote four Baldrige National Quality Award Applications, supported four site visits, and played a key role in operationalizing the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. Before leaving her role as Vice President of the Poudre Valley Center for Performance Excellence, Sonja co-founded Poudre Valley’s consulting business and helped organizations across the country take their next step forward in performance excellence. Most recently, Sonja led performance excellence for Texas Health Resources, a 20+-hospital system in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. During her tenure, she wrote two Baldrige National Quality Award Applications, which earned two national site visits, and transformed the organization’s performance measurement system. In 2016, Sonja became an independent consultant, working with organizations across the country to advance excellence and develop their executive teams. 

Sonja is an Alumni Examiner on the Malcolm Baldrige Board of Examiners. During her 15 years on the Board, she has facilitated national examiner training, led numerous examiner teams, and served on multiple advisory teams in support of the Baldrige Program for Performance Excellence. She also served as a judge for the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence and has led numerous application writing workshops across the country.

Sonja is a Certified Lean Master. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology and Chemistry from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and a Master of Arts Degree in Journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

In all interactions, Sonja brings her passion for performance excellence and holds true to a strong sense of personal integrity, genuine respect for each organization’s individual culture, and a desire to make Baldrige as easy and practical as possible.