Emanuele Riva is the new Chair of IAF, the International Accreditation Forum and world association of accreditation bodies. This is the first time an Italian has received this appointment.
IAF is responsible for harmonizing the worldwide rules of accreditation, so that the certificates issued by accredited certification bodies are recognized all over the world and guarantee the quality, suitability for use and safety of products, services and professionals on the market.
Founded in 1993, under the auspices of the WTO, with the aim of improving and regulating non-commercial barriers between member countries of the World Trade Organization, today IAF has 87 accreditation bodies, representing 104 states. Italy is represented by Accredia, the national accreditation body, designated by the Italian government to accredit certification, inspection and verification bodies, testing laboratories and calibration laboratories.
Emanuele Riva, who will be Chair of IAF for the next three years, is currently Vice General Director and Director of Accredia’s Certification and Inspection Department. He is also a member of the EA Board of Directors, and was IAF Vice President from 2015 to the current date.
He has been with Accredia since 2003, and Department Director since 2013. During these years Riva has represented the National Accreditation Body and Italy by collaborating with many international accreditation and technical standardization bodies, such as IAF, EA (European Accreditation), ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and INAB (The Irish National Accreditation Board).
According to the recent ISO Survey 2021, the most authoritative source on the global diffusion of management system certifications (quality, environment, safety, etc.), Italy, with over 90,000 ISO 9001 quality certifications, ranks first among European countries and second in the world.
“I am very honored to represent my country in an important world organization such as IAF and for this I thank Accredia and all the countries that have supported Italy. This appointment is a reason for satisfaction for the work carried out so far and increases the prestige and reputation of our country among world organizations” commented Riva.
“The challenges on the horizon are many: from post-pandemic management to the definition of shared and uniform rules at an international level on fundamental issues for the life of citizens, businesses and the government administrative authorities, such as sustainability, health, safety and digitization. Also important is the project of the world database of certifications for management systems, and the merger project between IAF and ILAC, the two world accreditation players. But the work to ensure harmonized and uniform certifications and verification procedures common to all countries will also be crucial, so as to simplify the life of companies, as well as collaboration with institutions and stakeholders of the global infrastructure for quality” Riva continued.
“For Italy this is a great opportunity, since our country will be the protagonist in the discussions where strategies are decided on the issues at the center of the world agenda” he concluded.