NEW YORK — Columbia Business School’s Deming Center for Operational Innovation and Excellence announces that Gary Kaplan, MD, CEO Emeritus of Virginia Mason Health System and Member on the Board of Stewardship Trustees of CommonSpirit Health, will receive its 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award during a ceremony at Columbia University’s Faculty House on May 12, 2026.
Since its inauguration in 2016, the Lifetime Achievement Award has honored stalwart leaders who embody the best of W. Edwards Deming’s teachings and create lasting impact through the practice of principled, values-based leadership. Through this award, the Center continues to salute Deming’s legacy in the areas of management, continuous improvement, and operational excellence. As the 2026 honoree, Kaplan joins previous awardees, Paul O’Neill, 72nd Secretary of the US Treasury and former CEO of Alcoa, and Sergio Marchionne, former CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, equally celebrated for positioning their organizations for long-term growth and success.
Kaplan exemplifies the spirit of the Lifetime Achievement Award through his transformational leadership at Virginia Mason Health System, where he led one of the most rigorous applications of the Toyota Motor Corporation Production System in US healthcare, the Virginia Mason Production System. Instituting daily management systems and rapid process improvement workshops, and empowering frontline staff, the organization reduced medical errors, improved clinical quality metrics, lowered costs, and became nationally recognized as a model for patient safety and operational design. Importantly, he embedded continuous improvement into governance and culture, ensuring that excellence was sustained beyond his tenure, reflecting Deming’s emphasis on constancy of purpose. His lasting influence—now extending through his board role at CommonSpirit Health—reflects a lifetime commitment to ethical stewardship grounded in systems thinking and long-term value creation. In honoring Kaplan’s legacy, the Deming Center seeks to inspire its students—the next generation of business practitioners—to embrace excellence in leadership as a core guiding principle of their practice.
“Gary Kaplan is an incredibly thoughtful and purpose-driven leader. His professional journey continues to be defined by principled leadership and a deep commitment to continuous improvement,” said Columbia Business School Dean and David and Lyn Silfen Professor of Business Costis Maglaras. “His work is transforming the healthcare delivery space in ways that create lasting impact. We are proud to recognize his achievements and the example he sets for future generations.”
"I am truly humbled by this wonderful honor. Dr. Deming’s principles have inspired generations of leaders and team members in industries and professions around the world. It has been a privilege to lead with other leaders, clinicians, and, most importantly, frontline team members applying these principles to improve the lives of those we serve, our patients and communities," said Gary Kaplan, MD, CEO Emeritus of Virginia Mason Health System and Member on the Board of Stewardship Trustees of CommonSpirit Health.
In his congratulations to Kaplan, Nelson Fraiman, Columbia Business School Professor and Faculty Director Emeritus of the Deming Center, applauded him for “demonstrating that operational excellence and principled leadership are not abstract ideals, but daily disciplines that create measurable, lasting impact.” Nothing embodies Kaplan’s approach to inspiring and leading people more than the quote from W. Edwards Deming: “The aim of leadership should be to improve the performance of man and machine, to improve quality, to increase output, and simultaneously to bring pride of workmanship to people.”
Founded in 1993 at Columbia Business School, the Deming Center bridges theory and practice in operational innovation and operational excellence by fostering academic-industry collaboration, promoting applied research, and developing future leaders—creating lasting impact for business and society. To learn more about the Deming Center for Operational Innovation and Excellence visit https://business.columbia.edu/demingcenter.
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