John Major

PRINCIPAL

John Major is a Founding Partner of Northwest Center for Performance Excellence working to promote the implementation of effective Lean Six Sigma based structured continuous improvement programs. John has over 30 years experience leading operational teams within the high tech industry including VP, Customer Support and Service for Xerox Office Products Group, VP, Worldwide Manufacturing & Global Supply Chain for Tektronix Corporation, and most recently as VP, Global Operations for Radisys Corporation. John has led the implementation of continuous improvement programs based on the fusion of Strategy Deployment, Lean Thinking, Six Sigma Structured Problem Solving, and Kaizen Methodology at many diverse companies over the years. He has taught continuous improvement principles at Portland State University and holds both a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an Executive MBA from the University of Washington.

Steve Zagarola

PRINCIPAL

Steve Zagarola is a Six Sigma Executive Master Black Belt certified by Mikel Harry – a co-founder of the Six Sigma methodology from Motorola. He has more than 25 years’ experience in the practical and effective application of statistical and modern structured approaches to the optimization of manufacturing and transactional processes, quality systems and R&D including the application of structured problem solving, statistical process control, design of experiments, DMAIC and Design for Six Sigma.  He provided technical editing for the 2012 edition of Six Sigma for Dummies for John Wiley & Sons.

Steve’s experiences and talents are the perfect balance between “real-world” experience and the ability to effectively share, train and inspire others. He has worked with and provided training and consulting for industries ranging from apparel manufacturing, advanced semiconductors, food and beverage, plastics molding, wind energy, healthcare, and public transportation for both the manufacturing, service, and administration processes. He has worked with clients to improve operations to the tune of millions of dollars in net profit and leaps in customer loyalty for global organizations on six continents and in English, Spanish and German. He served as Six Sigma Program and Quality Manager at Vestas Wind System, as Director of Quality for Cascade Microtech (now Form Factor), as a Senior Manufacturing Manager at The Coca-Cola Company, and as a structural engineering supervisor for Montgomery Elevator Company (now KONE Corporation). 

He founded and leads instruction for Oregon State University’s (OSU) Lean Six Sigma Certification Programs that kicked-off in 2019 for OSU’s Executive and Professional Education at OSU’s College of Business. He also founded and ran Portland State University’s Center for Executive and Professional Education’s Six Sigma programs for ten years as well as Six Sigma Green and Black Belt certification programs at the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito in Quito, Ecuador in Spanish.

Steve earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech and completed post-graduate studies in Psychology and Statistics at Georgia Tech and Georgia State University and with Dr. Douglas Montgomery. He is an improvisational pianist, a Black Belt Choi Kwang Do martial arts and is fluent in four languages.

David Huffman

PRINCIPAL

David Huffman is a Founding Partner of Northwest Center for Performance Excellence.  Dave is a Xerox certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with 30 years of experience in teaching, coaching, and hands-on implementations of continuous improvement and structured problem-solving. He has led continuous improvement efforts utilizing the principles of Lean Six Sigma in diverse situations throughout his career as an Engineer and Engineering Manager at Tektronix, as Director of Quantitative Methods within Xerox service, as a Black Belt and Master Black Belt for Xerox Customer Support, as manager of Quality at Vestas Wind Systems, and as VP of Service at Xerox International Partners. Dave has taught Lean and Six Sigma at Portland State University, he holds a BS in Chemistry from Lewis and Clark College, a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Oregon State University, and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.