A while back, I reported that someone within the IAQG’s AS9100 standards committee may have used inside information for their own marketing advantage. Early on, the only people who knew that AS9100 would be rebranded as “IA9100” were the folks inside the IAQG itself. Somehow, though, someone nabbed the domain name “IA9100.com” before anyone else. Eyebrows were raised.
We now see that the IA9100 domain is hosting content for the QMS consulting company SimpleQue, which makes complete sense. SimpleQue is headed up by Jim Lee, who is — you guessed it — a member of the IAQG’s committee for AS9100. (To keep things clear, this is Jim Lee, and not Tim Lee of Boeing. We don’t want to confuse the two.)
Now, you may remember I previously reported on Jim Lee of SimpleQue after he got all leaky on social media and publicly announced that AS9100 was being rebranded as IA9100. Here’s the post he made from back in April of 2022:
You can tell by the photo itself this guy does not have the temperament to be on the committee; he’s clearly more interested in promoting himself than actually doing the right thing while at the IAQG. And, good lord, just stop with the lanyards and medals already, FFS. This isn’t North Korea.
Sure enough, it was Jim Lee who now appears to have jumped on the domain name and used his inside information to gain market advantage in the consulting field for his company SimpleQue. That’s a dirty trick, and Lee should be tossed off the committee and banned from participating. Because he’s a shill, though, I am sure they won’t do anything about it.
Here’s a screenshot of what IA9100.com resolves to as of right now:
This is on brand for Lee. Take a look at his LinkedIn profile and first ask how he can claim to have been a “partial owner” of ANAB. Then, notice which certification body he worked for and who issued SimpleQue its ISO 9001 certification. We are supposed to believe that Eagle is doing a fair and impartial audit of the company run by its former President. Sure, buddeh.
So, how do I know IAQG won’t take any action regarding the “IA9100.com” scandal? Because years ago, I filed an IAQG OASIS ticket prompting the leadership to investigate the matter, of course. However, IAQG shut down the complaint yesterday without taking any action for a whopping 737 days. So the leadership was fully aware of what was going on and allowed it to happen. (Yes, it’s ironic that the time they took to ignore this is the same number as the famous Boeing aircraft.)
Now recall that when I applied to join the AS9100 drafting committee, the IAQG went out of its way to make up bullshit reasons why it wasn’t letting me anywhere near the building. At the time, they claimed they were very concerned that I would be acting as an agent for Oxebridge, rather than an individual person. Said Membership Chair Elizabeth Ray, back in 2015:
The SAE Aerospace Council Organization and Operating Procedures also require that participating members function as individuals and not as agents or representatives of any organization or group with which they may be associated.
That was always a bullshit argument because the IAQG overtly and directly admits people based on the company they work for, and then markets their membership as representing those companies. Here is one slide from a typical presentation of that period, where the AS9100 “Series Team” is presented as a set of people representing their specific companies:
But going back to that 2015 ruling, will the IAQG now invoke it in the case of Jim Lee, who clearly used his inside information not only to be “first” in leaking the IA9100 rebranding on LinkedIn — to make himself look important — but then grabbed an important website domain to ensure he ranks high in 1990s-era search results? Again, we shouldn’t hold our breath.
This is why the IAQG wouldn’t let me join. If they had, I would have put an end to this unethical, scummy, profiteering once and for all. Users would have had a voice at the table, and the sort of scammy bullshit pulled by SimpleQue would never happen in the first place.
Dirty, dirty business.
I asked Lee to comment on this, but he hasn’t so far. I will update the article if he decides to do so.
Christopher Paris is the founder and VP Operations of Oxebridge. He has over 35 years’ experience implementing ISO 9001 and AS9100 systems, and helps establish certification and accreditation bodies with the ISO 17000 series. He is a vocal advocate for the development and use of standards from the point of view of actual users. He is the writer and artist of THE AUDITOR comic strip, and is currently writing the DR. CUBA pulp novel series. Visit www.drcuba.world
