Ken Snyder, the executive dean and chief administrative officer of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, joined the Shingo Institute as the executive director in 2015. Mr. Snyder has served as a member of the Shingo Executive Advisory Board for the past eight years and has intimate knowledge of the Institute and its history.

Mr. Snyder developed an interest in Japanese business practices while living in Japan during the time he was a student. His interest led him to major in Japanese history and then to pursue an MBA for the purpose of working with a Japanese business expanding to the United States. Inspired by the work of Professor Mike Yoshino and Professor William Ouchi, Mr. Snyder wrote his master’s thesis on “Applying Japanese Business Practices in American Companies.”

Immediately after graduation, Mr. Snyder joined a Japanese electronics manufacturing company and helped lead the establishment of its U.S. affiliate company. As plant manager, and later president of that company, he led the company through the implementation of TQC, QC Circles, and later, JIT and kanban initiatives.

After ten+ years with the Japanese company, Mr. Snyder led the startup of Progressive Impressions International (PII) in Bloomington, Illinois. There he created a “Lean accounting” system before the term even existed, and he led the growth of PII from pre-revenue to over $25 million in annual revenues.

Before joining the Huntsman School, Mr. Snyder was president of Marketing Communication Inc., an operating division of Taylor Corporation, where he directed a group of six companies while growing revenues from $25 million to over $80 million. He joined the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business in 2008.

Mr. Snyder has served as a member of the Shingo Executive Advisory Board since 2009, and as a Shingo examiner since 2010. He was named chairman of the Shingo board and executive director of the Shingo Institute in 2015.

He earned an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business in 1980 with an emphasis in international business. Prior to that he earned a bachelor’s degree in Japanese history from the University of Utah in 1978.