Michael Cassidy

Dr. Michael Cassidy is the Director of the Manufacturing Systems Management and Packaging of Electronic and Optical Devices programs at SMU and the President of White Rock Associates, a consulting firm specializing in manufacturing strategy, quality and process improvement. He received a B.S. degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Metallurgy and Materials Science and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois in Metallurgical Engineering. Dr. Cassidy conducted manufacturing process research at the Bell Labs Engineering Research Center in process measurement, soldering and IC assembly. He directed the automation branch which investigated robotics, vision systems and implemented hundreds of automated machines at Western Electric manufacturing locations. He held various positions in manufacturing, quality, procurement, distribution, engineering and R&D at AT&T and Lucent Technologies. He was the Quality Director when the Power Systems Division became the only US company to win the Deming Prize administered by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers. He was the VP and General Manger of the Energy Systems division of Lucent where he grew the business from $300M to $1B in sales. He is a recipient of the IEEE Outstanding Manufacturing Technologist Award.