Keith Whalen | MCSD
Web Guy
Fluid Web Development
Life is like riding a bike, to stop falling off you need to keep moving forward!!!
Keith Whalen
What are your roles and responsibilities at work?
I have overall responsibility for the Business Management System and functional competence framework. I am also responsible for shaping and implementing quality policy as well as being the focal point of engagement on quality for the Regulator, Certification Bodies and Customer.
What is your background and how did you get into quality?
Up until the point I joined Babcock International Group in August 2012, my career was spent wholly in the aerospace sector, within complex, customer-focused and service-led businesses. I have held a wide variety of positions within operations, logistics, change management and quality, with my last two roles being European General Manager and Director of European Operations/ Quality for a Canadian aerospace component distribution business.
I saw my initial transition into quality as a natural progression from my previous operational/ commercially focused roles, as they equipped me with an in-depth understanding of the wider business. Since then, I have rotated between senior quality and operational positions, allowing me to balance the need for business growth whilst maintaining compliance with key contractual and legislative requirements.
To achieve the desired aim of making quality a career of choice and to encourage more people to make the leap into the profession, quality needs to become more relevant and widely accepted as a value-adding function, rather than being seen as an overhead and an easy target for cost reduction.
