Mike Chambers

Mike is a Senior (Managing) Principal with Abidian and Vice President – Chief Strategy Officer with The Abidian Institute. With over 30 years of practical experience, Mike specializes in helping organizations achieve their highest potential by eliminating defects, inefficiencies, and ineffective work practices. He has held management and continuous improvement leadership responsibilities at both the facility and corporate levels with three Fortune 500 companies. Mike is an accomplished Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt (CMBB) and hands-on Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP).

Professionally, Mike has managed multi-billion dollar operations, led a Fortune 100 engineering team with total domestic responsibility, and served in a corporate leadership role with a Fortune 500 company with over 300 facilities in 30+ countries. Along with serving with distinction in the United States Navy and Naval Reserve, his personal history includes work with industry leaders such as Milliken, ExxonMobil, Hewlett Packard, and Honda. On multiple occasions, teams under Mike's leadership have received organization-wide and independent, third-party world class recognition.

In coaching others, Mike uses his results-oriented experience and hands-on background to help define a common sense, user-friendly philosophy of leading and implementing change. His goal is to not only provide the tools and insight to improve, but to also generate quick results and help connect leadership and employees in a culture that can be self-sustaining over the long term.

Mike graduated first in his class in electrical engineering from Auburn University and has done graduate coursework at both Auburn and Louisiana State Universities. He is the author of over 20 privately published books and numerous papers and articles. Mike has made a number of presentations at local, regional, and international professional conferences with as many as 2000 in attendance. In recognition of his expertise and continuous improvement insight, Mike has been invited to appear on the late General Alexander Haig's 21st Century Business Review seen on CNBC and Fred Thompson's Inside Business Review seen on CNN. As a facilitator, he has led hundreds of Lean, Maintenance Excellence, and Six Sigma-oriented events. Over 6000 individuals on three continents have attended his presentations, workshops, and improvement events.