Lindner College of Business Graduates First Student with Six Sigma Certification

Michael Tersigni, CEAS ’16, a fourth year biomedical engineering student at UC, is the first student to graduate from the recently launched Six Sigma Green Belt Certification program at the Lindner College of Business.

To obtain that professional certification, Tersigni had to take a mix of statistics and operations management courses at Lindner, pass a written proficiency test and display competency in a hands-on project environment that addresses a business improvement need.

The certification, Tersigni says, is a valuable skill in helping companies save millions of dollars in eliminating variability and waste in manufacturing and transactional business processes.

Tersigni currently works as an engineering co-op for AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals at a manufacturing site in West Chester, Ohio. As a member of the Operational Excellence department, his group is charged with leading continuous improvement initiatives.

“Moving forward with my career after college, the skills and methodologies learned through obtaining this certification and applying it in a real world environment will provide me with a solid foundation to tackle any improvement endeavor I set out to undertake within the workplace, regardless of the industry, Tersigni says.

Launched in the fall of 2014, the

certification program

is overseen by James Evans, professor of Business Analytics in the Operations, Business Analytics and Information Systems department overseeing the certification program. Evans is internationally known for his textbooks and research in quality and performance excellence, and has recently published the second edition of An Introduction to Six Sigma and Process Improvement (Cengage Learning) with co-author William Lindsay.

Lindner’s Green Belt certification level fits well within the existing OM/IM curriculum; most content is covered in the required business statistics, Operations Management core, quality management and project management courses.