Sharonmae Shirley, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation (JANAAC) now also sits as vice-chair of the Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC) effective from August 19, 2022.

Shirley’s appointment follows a unanimous vote during elections held at the IAAC 30th General Assembly meeting in Antigua, Guatemala between August 12 and August 19.

With over 25 years of experience working with multilateral organisations contributing to the fields of
accreditation, conformity assessment, analytical chemistry, environmental chemistry and other
specialised areas, and having served as chair of the IAAC Management Committee (2016 to 2020), vice-
chair of the IAAC Technical Committee (2020 to 2022) and co-chair of the ILAC-IAF Joint Development Support Committee (JDSC), Shirley has a deep appreciation of the regional and accreditation issues of import.

In her new role as vice-chair, Shirley will support chair Liliane Somma in advancing the development and implementation of strategies by the IAAC to facilitate trade among economies in the Americas through the global acceptance of accreditations granted by its member accreditation bodies.

The IAAC membership includes accreditation bodies and other stakeholder organisations in North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

The mission of the IAAC is to promote cooperation among accreditation bodies and interested parties of the Americas, aiming at the development of conformity assessment structures to achieve the improvement of products, processes and services.