Raj Nathan elected to APAC Executive Committee

Raj Nathan, president of the International Accreditation Service (IAS) has been elected to the Executive Committee of the Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC). The Executive Committee functions as a board of directors and is responsible to the General Assembly for the effective pursuit of APAC objectives, and for the oversight of the operations and management of APAC. The regional association of accreditation bodies in the Asia-Pacific region, APAC was established on Jan. 1, 2019, by the amalgamation of two former regional accreditation cooperations – the Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) and the Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC).

Nathan has been president of IAS since 2018. Previously, he served as senior vice president, and in other positions for IAS, where he gained more than 20 years of progressive technical and management experience in conformity assessment and accreditation area. He led the successful expansion of global business operations for IAS and has served on and led international teams to Japan, India, Singapore and more on a variety of global assignments in peer evaluation of the national accreditation systems. Nathan holds a master’s degree in industrial and management systems engineering from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

The primary role of APAC is to manage and expand a mutual recognition arrangement (MRA) among accreditation bodies in the Asia-Pacific region to facilitate trade. The MRA facilitates the acceptance of test reports, inspection reports and management systems across the region and with other regions around the world. The Asia-Pacific region represents more than half of the world’s trade and two-thirds of the global human population.

This APAC mutual recognition and acceptance of conformity assessment reduces the need to undertake duplicate testing, inspection or certification, thus saving time and money, increasing economic efficiency and facilitating international trade. APAC has 47 full members across 29 economies that are APAC MRA signatories, 18 associate members across 15 economies, and eight affiliates across eight economies. APAC’s members include accreditation bodies, accreditation focal points and other organizations that have an interest in accredited conformity assessment results. APAC is recognized by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) as one of four APEC Specialist Regional Bodies that support the work of the APEC Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance.