ANSI Acquires Full Ownership of ANAB, Enhancing Accreditation Services Portfolio across Global Market

NEW YORK, Dec. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has signed an agreement to acquire full interests in the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board, LLC (ANAB), strengthening ANSI's and ANAB's abilities to provide the highest quality third-party accreditation services for diverse global markets. The transaction with the American Society for Quality (ASQ) is scheduled to close on December 28, 2018. Since 2005 ANAB has been owned equally by ANSI and ASQ; the purchase will result in ANAB becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of ANSI, registered as a separate legal entity and renamed the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB).

While the two brands will continue business as usual in the near term, ANSI will further bolster independence and impartiality of its accreditation programs for conformity assessment bodies by integrating them with ANAB's portfolio of services. ANSI's accreditation of standards developers and U.S. Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) to international technical committees will remain separately and internally operated by ANSI.

Lane Hallenbeck, ANSI vice president of accreditation services, will continue to lead ANSI's accreditation programs and becomes the executive director of the newly unified ANAB, reporting to ANSI president and CEO Joe Bhatia. Keith Greenaway will continue as chief operating officer of ANAB, reporting to Mr. Hallenbeck and supervising the combined accreditation business unit leaders from ANAB and ANSI.

"This is a fantastic opportunity to complete the creation of an entity that is the global leader in accreditation services. Both organizations already have a strong market presence, and now being united as the ANSI National Accreditation Board will bring an even higher level of recognition, confidence and trust in the value of accreditation," said Mr. Bhatia. "ANSI, ANAB, and ASQ's respective customers and stakeholders all stand to benefit from this transition."

Accreditation plays a critical role helping to assure the competence of bodies that assess conformity of goods and services with specified standards requirements benefitting public health, safety, environment and welfare.

"ANSI's priority is to keep ANAB intact, and to enhance, not disrupt, both our partnerships with clients and scheme owners, as well as teamwork amongst staff and assessors, while sustaining business development for the benefit of all," said Mr. Hallenbeck. "We further this commitment not just in accordance with standards requirements, but also towards satisfying all direct customers and promoting confidence for other indirect stakeholders in the global supply chain."

ANSI is looking to continue the successful trajectory of its accreditation services offerings while strengthening impartiality by moving all accreditation of conformity assessment bodies into ANAB under the auspices of ANSI ownership, which will optimize and meld services for shared customers and will strengthen brand recognition for entities earning ANAB accreditation.

"ANSI and ANAB are committed to continually improving the high level of service our customers expect, and we will persist serving them in the same manner as today," said Mr. Greenaway. "Our goal is to minimize changes, avoid disruptions, and achieve all the efficiencies and economies of scale that this unification allows."

For more information, visit www.ansi.org/accreditation/anab.

About ANSI
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) coordinates the U.S. the voluntary standards and conformity assessment system, serving the diverse interests of more than 270,000 companies and organizations and 30 million professionals worldwide. ANSI is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

About ANAB
The ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) becomes the largest multi-disciplinary ISO/IEC 17011 accreditation body in North America, with comprehensive signatory status across the multilateral recognition arrangements of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC). The ANAB accreditation portfolio includes management systems certification bodies, calibration and testing labs, product certification bodies, personnel credentialing organizations, forensic test and calibration service providers, inspection bodies, police crime units, greenhouse gas validation and verification bodies, reference material producers, and proficiency test providers.

SOURCE American National Standards Institute