Aerospace, Academia, and ASQ
Meet the 2025 Quality Professional of the Year: Dr. Ben Tomic
March 19, 2025
Aerospace, Academia, and ASQ
Meet the 2025 Quality Professional of the Year: Dr. Ben Tomic
March 19, 2025Image Source: Magenta Photo
Whether you’re testing a plane with Dr. Ben Tomic, using a template he taught you in college, or volunteering alongside him to put on an international conference, you have been lucky to have him in the quality field.
In between being a quality leader at Bombardier Aviation, he teaches at Sheridan College, provides consulting and auditing, and volunteers as a division leader with the American Society for Quality.
Although it would seem he has reason to brag, Tomic is not the type to seek out recognition. He quietly and efficiently gets the job done, without expecting fanfare or praise, according to Jim Spichiger of ASQ, who nominated him for the award.
“You’re probably not going to find a nicer person,” Spichiger says. He also is able to fill in at a moment’s notice. When another writer fell through for an ASQ guest column, Spichiger says Tomic stepped in and asked for just 24 hours to get it done.
“More than anything, working with Ben was a breeze,” said Shawn Armstrong of ASQ. “He was always on top of everything. It was a privilege to work with him.”
He gets things done, and makes sure they are done right. He has been known to double-check when something seems off, obviously a great asset when working in aerospace.
He’s been a mentor to many along the way, including the students he teaches in the many courses he’s developed. He is not the center of attention but he still manages to corral volunteers, putting on successful conferences, recruiting new members—no small feat—and working in numerous volunteer positions with the ASQ Toronto Section and the ASQ Inspection Division. He’s been an ASQ Fellow, the highest honor of ASQ, since 2018.
He also manages to work full-time in addition to teaching and consulting work. (No word on when he sleeps.) He believes in lifelong learning. While driving, he listens to audio books to further his knowledge about leadership and quality.
William Lacy, the current chair of the ASQ Inspection Division, says, “He has almost every certificate, so many aspects of the quality realm.”
Our 2025 Quality Professional of the Year has nineteen competences listed on his CV as well as 50 skills listed on LinkedIn—if you’re looking for a certified quality engineer (CQE) or an AS9100 lead auditor, you’re in luck—but also stresses the importance of emotional intelligence.
For these reasons and more, Dr. Ben Tomic is our 2025 Quality Professional of the Year.
Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!
Career Highs
Tomic has been interested in quality almost from the beginning, and earned a Ph.D. in quality management with a dissertation on the influence of organizational culture on the effectiveness of quality improvement programs in manufacturing organizations.
From there, he worked in automotive and then found his way to the aerospace field. He’s been with Bombardier Aviation since 2007. He started teaching at Sheridan College in 2017, and recently revamped the Quality Assurance - Manufacturing and Management postgraduate program on Sheridan College to include Quality 4.0 and other modern quality courses. He has instructed 40 classes on eleven different quality related topics.
Along the way, his education never stopped. His resume continues year after year with new skills and certifications added.
In his long career, several highlights came to mind: “Helping my organization to be probably one of the best in the world in what they are doing, revamping the quality program at Sheridan College, and helping clients succeed.”
He started consulting in 2010, and one client success story stood out. He recalled a few years ago working with a mid-size manufacturer that was struggling to secure a critical deal. They were losing out to competitors because their prices were too high.
Tomic discovered some inefficiencies related to the cost of poor quality and high scrap rates. “Together we embarked on a journey to find bottlenecks and map out waste, unnecessary motion of people, identifying error proofing, significantly reduced rework and scrap, lean tools like value stream mapping and 5S. By addressing inefficiencies, they gained a significant competitive advantage.”
“In just a few months the impact was profound,” Tomic says. They won the contract—and created a culture shift towards excellence. “For me, the moments like this are why I’m so passionate about what I do.”
Sharing His Knowledge
Spichiger highlighted three significant aspects of Tomic’s work: maintenance of the Certified Quality Inspector examination, long-time and continuous service through ASQ, and leadership in the classroom.
For 2023 and 2024, Tomic was responsible for an annual budget in excess of $50,000, and he lead a team of 20 volunteers that has successfully executed the Division’s business plan which includes nearly 30 different activities each year.
Tomic also served on the committee that developed, from scratch, the ASQ/ANSI IS1:2021 standard, titled Inspection Techniques and Requirements – Guidelines. His term on ASQE certification council was focused on leading the Certified Quality Inspector Exam Committee.
Spichiger notes that even with budget constraints, Tomic felt it was important to continue offering scholarships and the Inspector of the Year award. The scholarship had been around since 1999. “I’m very thankful to him for doing that,” Spichiger said. “He made it happen.” He also helped set up the Navin Dedhia scholarship, for a member who has since passed away. “Navin never knew the outcome but his family did,” Spichiger says. “Ben gets credit for getting it done on his watch.”
“Just the pressures that he had, with two conferences a year, and meetings, his demeanor was calm, cool and collected,” said Lacy. “Other people are more negative but he keeps things more positive. I like that characteristic of him.”
Shawn Armstrong, Segment Leader, ASQ Technical Community Council, recalled being at an ASQ conference a few years ago when Tomic wanted to introduce two new members to the division. “Ben just stood back. It’s not that he wanted the recognition, the two gentlemen were talking about how much they’ve learned from him. He was trying to bring them more involved in the division itself.”
“You could see the mentoring, the guidance that Ben created in those two individuals. It was a pleasure just talking to them,” Armstrong said. “Ben is phenomenal, I really enjoy him.”
Certifications
| COMPETENCES |
|---|
|
| EDUCATION |
|---|
|
| AFFILIATIONS |
|---|
|
| ASQ SERVICE |
|---|
|
How to Listen
Tomic offers this advice for quality professionals: “Commit to lifelong learning and seek new knowledge.”
“Develop leadership skills, the ability to lead, communicate and inspire others.” He also recommends seeking out professional organizations like ASQ.
“My last advice is work on your emotional intelligence. It’s a critical component in life, active listening, showing empathy, trust. By embracing these principles, you can make a lasting difference in your community and profession.”
Tomic notes that being good with numbers is one level, but reaching higher in your career requires a different set of skills. “As I’m getting older—I didn’t know this in the beginning of my career—I appreciate the value of listening, from the other perspective, know myself, not react, and reflect on others’ opinions.”
When I mentioned that this can be difficult to do, Tomic said, “It’s a never-ending learning process.” He says he listens to books on the subject, since he drives a lot. “I hate wasting time, so I try to listen to something to help me in my life and career, or relax.”
Caring and Communicating
Dr. Michael Mladjenovic, ASQ Fellow ASQ Canada RDD, Statistics Division Chair-Elect, Quality 4.0 and Data Science Chair, went to the same college as Tomic in Belgrade, though not at the same time. Although today they both live in the Toronto area, “We see each other at the airports,” Mladjenovic says, usually going to the same events.
He appreciates Tomic’s caring side as well. After Mladjenovic fractured his ankle about six months ago, Tomic would call and check in every month and ask how things were progressing. “He cares about people. He would send me emails, text, ask if he can call.”
John Vandenbemden is a past chair of the ASQ Inspection Technical Community, a past member of the ASQ Board of Directors as well as the Quality Professional 2022. Last year was his 40th year of ASQ membership.
While other ASQ technical communities had issues with volunteers, Tomic seemed to have the ability to network and work with people to get things done. “A lot of times, anyone in that role is overwhelmed and has problems communicating with others. He seemed to go across that, it was not a factor, which caused him to excel.”
“It was really good to work with him,” Vandenbemden says. “He had no issues with leading by example. He didn’t expect something of someone else that he wouldn’t do himself. They knew he was in their corner. There was no ‘Do this and get back to me when it’s done.’”
“He reminds me of my son,” Vandenbemden says. “Not the age, but my son was one of these who achieved recognition and said ‘Let’s go on to the next challenge.’”
Meet Previous Years Winners
Dr. Milton Krivokuca
Saso Krstovski
John Vendenbemden
Navin S. Dedhia
