CH2M HILL, Vice President, Enterprise Performance Excellence
Contact Adam P. Cohen
9191 South Jamaica Street Englewood, CO 80112
p: 1.888.CH2M.HILL e: [email protected]
Adam P. Cohen is Vice President and Director of Enterprise Performance Excellence for CH2M HILL, a global project delivery company with revenues of more than $6 billion and 25,000 employees. Fortune named CH2M HILL to the prestigious 100 Best Companies to Work For listing in 2003, 2006, and 2008; and America’s Most Admired Companies for the last 6 years.
In his 19-year career with the firm, he has served in various roles involving training, organizational development, strategic planning, process improvement, quality management, marketing, and technical publications. His client work spans the water, transportation, energy and environment, and industrial sectors.
So how does an English Language & Literature major end up celebrating 19 years of employment with global engineering, construction, and operations firm CH2M HILL? And, how does this experience translate into a calling to improve company operations, service to customers, and employee engagement?
CH2M HILL acquired an Evanston, Illinois-based transportation engineering firm in 1989, and opened the “Chicago office” on the research campus of Northwestern University. Less than a year after graduation from the University of Michigan, Cohen was the first new CH2M HILL employee hired to join the existing team. He applied his English degree as a technical publications and editing specialist, producing technical reports and marketing materials for almost 3 years.
In 1993, with the pull of Colorado luring him home, he joined OMI, a fully owned subsidiary unit of CH2M HILL. Just months into his employment with OMI, he attended an introductory training session of OMI’s Obsessed With Quality process. The course taught employees about the culture of quality, customer service, teamwork, process improvement and statistical process control, and employee empowerment. In 1995, Cohen became a “focus team leader” for one element of OMI’s implementation of the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award criteria. He served in this role and as co-leader of Team OMI, driving companywide improvements and leading production of three official Baldrige Award applications.
OMI received the Baldrige Award in 2000 as the first-ever Colorado recipient. (Since joined as Baldrige Award Recipients by the UNC Monfort College of Business and, this year, Poudre Valley Health System.) He became a Quality Coach for OMI in 1999-2000, then Quality Director for OMI in 2003 until 2006 when he returned to CH2M HILL’s corporate ranks in a companywide quality role.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of the non-profit Colorado Performance Excellence (CPEx), a state-level Baldrige-based performance excellence program. He served as Board President in 2004 and 2005, and Vice President in 2003. Recently “retiring” as the Lead Judge for the CPEx awards program after 4 years, he will return to a role as an Examiner for the state award in 2009.
Cohen also is engaged as an Advisor to the Monfort College of Business Institute for Performance Excellence at the University of Northern Colorado. He co-chaired the Baldrige Award Recipients Consortium, a national network of Baldrige Award Recipient organizations, in 2001 and 2002.
Cohen has been a guest on several radio programs and internet radio station Voice America, and has made keynote and workshop presentations to more than 5,000 people. He is certified by the American Society for Quality as a Manager of Quality and Organizational Excellence, and Quality Improvement Associate.