Victor Gandy
Executive Secretary, IAAC

The Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC) held its XXX General Assembly (GA) annual meetings in Antigua, Guatemala, from 12-19 August 2022. This was the first GA that IAAC has carried out in a hybrid format, and it received the largest number of attendees in IAAC history, when both face-to-face and virtual participants are counted. A total of 120 representatives of accreditation bodies and conformity assessment organizations in the region attended.

This was the first IAAC meeting held in person since March 2019 when the pandemic began. The Certification, Inspection and Laboratories subcommittee members held discussions about technical topics of interest for the region. The IAAC Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) Group reviewed the remote peer evaluation reports and the MLA Committee discussed ways to improve the MLA process and the extension of new IAAC MLA scopes.

On 19 August 2022, the GA members unanimously elected Andrea Melo of the General Coordination for Accreditation (Cgcre), Brazil, as the new IAAC Chair for the term 2022-2024. Andrea held the position of IAAC Vice-Chair for the past four years, so she is very familiar with the region’s needs, strengths and challenges. Andrea has been actively involved in the development of key policies and the IAAC Strategic Plan. In previous years, Andrea served as Vice-Chair of the IAAC Technical Committee and IAAC Certification Bodies Subcommittee Chair.

At the international level, Andrea was the IAAC representative at the IAF Technical Committee and at working groups related to certification. Until last year, Andrea served as the IAF Development Support Committee Chair. Andrea has also been a member of the ISO/CASCO Working Groups 29, 30, and 42 on behalf of her accreditation body.

Andrea is based in Rio de Janeiro and has been the Head of Division for the Development of Accreditation Programs at Cgcre since 2010. Ms. Melo joined Cgcre in 2002 and has held numerous positions of increasing responsibility. Ms. Melo is a Doctor of Science in Physics from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Andrea is committed to leading IAAC and its members to the forefront of the international accreditation arena in support of IAF and ILAC, as an agile international driver of MLAs that bolster a superior quality infrastructure in the Americas and improve confidence in accredited conformity assessment in the region.