JBLFMU chairman: A Juran Awardee

DR. MARY Lou Lacson Arcelo, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the John B. Lacson Foundation Maritime University (JBLFMU) was bestowed the Juran Award by the Philippine Society for Quality, as recognition of her distinguished leadership and quality management.

The Juran Award honors Dr. Joseph M. Juran for his worldwide contributions to quality which revolutionized the practice of quality in the 20th century. His standard has been considered the fundamental principles and practices in the field of quality. The prestigious award recognizes persons who have contributed in an outstanding way to the application of effective quality management.

Dr. Arcelo deserves the award for she is one of those women who have chosen to dedicate their lives to education and doing so with love and selfless devotion. Her arduous pursuit of excellence in maritime education and training is strongly felt in the wide sphere of influence upon which the beacon of this only maritime university in the Philippines so brightly shines. She has uplifted the lives of so many Ilonggo families by having made available the opportunities for a seafaring career to the city and province of Iloilo and all the provinces of Panay as well as to many people of Mindanao who, because of their Ilonggo roots, have come to JBLFMU to study and become world class seafarers. Through her leadership, JBLFMU made its first serious deliberate steps towards excellence when it decided to go for processes to manage quality. To be formally guided and to obtain credible third party verification and certification, the university first engaged Det Norske Veritas for its ISO certification and initially for the DNV Certification for Maritime Academies and Maritime Training Centers

Amidst a cut-throat competition among the various maritime institutions, JBLFMU’s three units: JBLFMU-Arevalo, JBLCF-Bacolod, and JBLFMU-Molo, continue to make edge over the rest by earning both global and national recognitions over the years. Through the exemplary management and dedication for quality education, the JBLF System, became a Philippine Quality Awardee; with the distinction as the first and the only maritime university, and one of the first three higher educational institutions in the country, the only one outside Luzon, to receive the award because of her transformational leadership and passion for the kind of education and training that stakeholders deserve. Today, JBLFMU has hitched its quality guide light with the Philippine Quality Award (PQA). Through the years, the Malcolm Baldridge standards-based PQA has provided the crucial guidelines that continue to propel JBLFMU towards excellence - all these to benefit not only the Ilonggo seafarers but also the Philippine Maritime Industry as well. Moreover, JBLFMU is the only maritime institution in the Philippines recognized as member of the International Association of Maritime Universities (IAMU).

"I am grateful to all of you for your hard work, earnest commitment and steadfast loyalty that made me and our university attained the prestigious Juran Award in recognition of our outstanding contribution in the promotion of quality and excellence, thereby serving as a role model to the rest of the world. Mabuhay Lacsonians!” says Dr. Arcelo.