IAS December 2021 - Newspaper - Page 3
IAS NEWSLETTER December 2021
Continued from page 1
Finally, our internal quality team led by Mohan Sabaratnam, vice president , global
accreditation and quality, and assisted very ably by David Musselwhite, deputy quality
manager as well as Karthik Easwar, head, quality/regulatory affairs, are extremely busy with
the forthcoming Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC) evaluation in the first quarter
of 2022. This is a quadrennial event for us with a capable and large team of APAC evaluators
conducting the evaluation. In my next newsletter, I may be able to update you on the postevaluation details. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, as the Year 2021 draws to a close and some of us here in the US and other
economies are meaningfully completing the year, and other nations and economies continue
to struggle to vaccinate their citizens and reach a level of herd immunity, let’s hope and pray
for a healthier 2022 and safe future for all.
Regards,
Raj Nathan
IAS Board Director
Rocco Davis
receives ICC
Meritorious Service
Award
IAS Family Loses Dear Colleague
and Technical Leader - Arunan
Kattilaparambil
Just as this issue was going to the press, the IAS family received the shocking news of
the sudden passing of one of its key global family members, Arunan, who served as the
manager, gulf region and team leader / technical assessor, on November 29th, 2021, in
Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Arunan exemplified the IAS global spirit and was a ‘go to’ colleague for all matters
relating to conformity assessment in the gulf region and beyond. He started working as a
technical assessor for IAS in 2012 when he met current IAS President Raj Nathan during an
assessment visit when he was working as a chief chemist at an IAS accredited laboratory in
Doha, State of Qatar.
By Laura Uraine
On October 19th, Rocco Davis was presented
with a Meritorious Service Award by Sara
Yerkes, senior vice president of government
relations for the International Code Council
(ICC). The ICC Meritorious Service Award
is granted to an individual who has given
unselfishly of time and talent in furthering
the development of ICC codes and
standards. Rocco Davis is vice president and
special assistant to the general president of
the Laborers’ International Union of North
America (LiUNA), and president of the IAS
Board of Directors.
“My immediate impression of Arunan when I met him in 2012 was his professional
demeanor, easy personality and responsiveness. His indefatigable spirit and commitment to
IAS’ growth, especially in the gulf region, will be remembered by all of us. His friendship and
engaging personality will be sorely missed,” said Raj Nathan.
Since the news of his passing reached the IAS family, there has been an outpouring of
messages from his IAS colleagues. A few excerpts are noted below.
“I had the fortune of working closely with him in a very good number of assignments,
spending joyful evenings with him, travels with him... there aren’t too many Arunans in this
world,” said fellow IAS Assessor.
“We depended on him for so many things and he was ALWAYS willing to help out, never
pushed back and was so happy to help. His smile will never be forgotten, it was one quality
of a single person you simply cannot forget. I’m sorry we never got the chance to let him
know how much we truly appreciated him,” said the IAS accounting team.
“That is a shocking news. Such a gifted and kindhearted person taken away from us way too
soon,” noted an IAS customer.
IAS Gains Recognition by GS Scheme
Arunan spent 36 years working in testing laboratories in Qatar in both the government
and private sector. He served as an international representative of the Royal Society of
Chemistry (RSC), UK in Qatar for four years and was Awarded Fellow of The Royal Society of
Chemistry (FRSC), UK. Arunan also held a Chartered Status (CChem) from RSC, UK.
IAS is pleased to announce that it has been granted recognition by QS Scheme (https://
www.q-s.de), a private Food Safety Scheme that is the leading standard for food safety in
Germany and stands for quality assurance from farm to shop. Following our commitment
to provide a safer world for consumers and end users through accreditation, this new
recognition is a natural fit.
In addition to his professional work, Arunan was involved in many social and charitable
organizations. He was on the Board of Directors of Bhavan’s Public School a distinguished
schools in Doha, Qatar. Arunan is survived by his wife, two daughters and two grandsons.
IAS will be accepting applications for this accreditation scheme through its portal, under the
Product Certification Agency (PCA) Accreditation Program.
IAS is compiling condolence notes to send to his family. If you would like to send a note,
please email it to Laura at luraine@iasonline.org
The first Korean Certificate of 'Compliance Management
System' in the Virtual Asset Industry is obtained by Bithumb
On the July 13th, Bithumb became Korea’s first compliance organization designated as an ISO 37301 certification body by the U.S.-based
International Accreditation Service (IAS).
Obtaining the certificate of compliance management system indicates that an organization has a system to prevent factors causing risk by
checking possible compliance risks during work and managing them in advance through monitoring.
ISO 37301 is the international standard for compliance management enacted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
It provides requirements and guidelines for establishing, developing, implementing, evaluating, maintaining, and improving an effective
compliance management system for an organization.
“ISO 37301 certificate helps to prove an organization’s will to carry out ESG management. We expect that the value of ISO 37301 will
increase as the demand for responsible investment and transparent information disclosure reflecting non-financial factors (environmental,
social, governance) expands,” stated a Korea Compliance Imitative representative.
Bithumb introduced a compliance monitoring system at the end of 2017 and established a company-wide compliance system. The company
has recently strengthened internal control, such as prohibiting investment purpose trades using employees’ own accounts
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