Hemant Urdhwareshe, Master Black Belt, is the Director of the Institute of Quality and Reliability (IQR). Before establishing IQR, he worked for over 28 years with Cummins India Limited (CIL) in areas of manufacturing, quality management and engineering. He has conducted several Six Sigma Black Belt and Green Belt programs for many reputed companies including Fleetguard India, Tata Auto Comp Systems (TACO), Alfa Laval, Satyam, Eaton Technologies, Mirc Electronics, Menon Pistons, and Mahindra Hinoday. He has trained more than 350 Black Belts and Green Belts, and over 800 professionals through workshops on reliability engineering, structured problem-solving, failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), quality function deployment (QFD), measurement system analysis (MSA) and statistical process control (SPC). Urdhwareshe has the rare distinction of being the first person in India with four ASQ certifications: the first Six Sigma Black Belt in India (2001), the first Quality Manager in India (1998), Quality Engineer (1996) and Reliability Engineer (2005). Apart from these ASQ certifications, he has also been honoured with Silver Standard 2003 award from Qimpro Foundation as Outstanding Manager of International Quality Systems. He is a panellist for the Lean Six Sigma Excellence Awards instituted by Symbiosis Centre for Human Resource Development (SCMHRD). He is a senior member of the ASQ, Fellow of the Indian Institution of Production Engineers (IIPE).