Christopher Paris remains an outspoken defender of ISO 9001 and end users, and as a result is the subject of much discussion. Here are some facts about Oxebridge’s founder and VP Operations.
Mr. Paris is a former chemical process engineer with Pure Tech Inc (now Williams Advanced Materials), where he designed processes for the production of high purity physical vapor deposition (sputtering) targets. In this capacity he managed a powder metallurgy laboratory, sinter press production line and a ceramic bonding lab. A former member of the American Ceramics Society (ACERS), his focus was on developing stoichiometrically accurate compounds which would then be pressed into high purity solids. Customers included Ramtron, NASA JPL, Hughes Aircraft and many research facilities at engineering universities. He implemented ISO 9001 with the company in the mid-1990’s
Prior to that, Mr. Paris worked in the Titanium Coated Mica (TCM) Laboratory for The Mearl Corporation (now BASF). This laboratory conducted bench- and pilot plant-scale quality control runs on pearlescent pigments, prior to their execution in the full production line. As his first exposure to quality, Mr. Paris joined the ISO 9001 implementation team in 1988 and helped implement one of the first ISO 9001 certified quality systems in the industry.
Moving to Florida in 1999, Mr. Paris founded Oxebridge Quality Resources, an ISO 9001 consulting firm. The company later added AS9100, ISO 13485 and other services to its offerings. Using his experience at Mearl and Pure Tech, Mr. Paris developed the 40-day “Rapid ISO 9001 Implementation Program.” He worked as a third party Lead Auditor, certified under RAB, for a number of registrars in the early 2000’s, but gave that up when he saw this as a potential conflict of interest with Oxebridge.
Criticism
Because traditional consultants typically cannot implement ISO 9001 in 40 days, there was a strong push to discredit Mr. Paris and Oxebridge. Oxebridge has defeated the critics by pointing to a growing list of clients who have successfully undergone 40-day Rapid ISO 9001, and by providing actual contact information for such clients when submitting quotes, allowing potential customers to confirm the program first-hand, with those who have experienced it.
Because of Oxebridge’s staunch pro-user position, and Champion Projects against conflicts of interest within the ISO 9001 sphere, both recognized bodies and dubious unaccredited “certificate mills” have launched anonymous online campaigns against the company. As always, Oxebridge simply refers potential clients to its customers, and lets them discuss performance and reputation with them.
Simultaneous to Oxebridge, Mr. Paris has written for a number of different media, including comic books, film and television. His focus is usually on fiction, with much of it humor or parody. He ran an well-known political satire blog called “Spittle & Ink” where he wrote as the fictional political blowhard “Mark Spittle,” a character that predated Stephen Colbert, but where “Spittle” pretended to be an over-the-top, radical leftist. The “Mark Spittle” character fell into the public consciousness when conservative talk show hosts Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity accidentally thought the character was real. Poorly-researched articles still refer to Mr. Paris as a “communist” even though the character was fictional. His political satire was featured on Liberal Oasis, and he was a writer for Salon.com.
He brought his satire writing to the Quality Management System world with the publication of two parody “standards,” Eyesore 9000 and DumbAS9100, still available for free through Oxebridge. The documents have been collectively downloaded over 250,000 times.
Surviving ISO 9001
In 2017, Oxebridge published Mr. Paris’ first book in the quality management field, Surviving ISO 9001: What Went So Terribly Wrong With the World’s Foremost Quality Management Standard, and How To Implement It Anyway. The book presents an inside view on how ISO 9001:2015 was developed, including the backstabbing and skulduggery that went on with the various ISO Technical Committees, giving an unprecedented and honest view of the ISO standards development process. It then provides a step-by-step method for implementing the standard, based on years of practical experience. The book can be purchased at the website www.survivingiso9001.com.
In 2014, Oxebridge established its first international office in Lima Peru. A Spanish speaker, Mr. Paris now spends half his time traveling through South America, as he builds the Oxebridge network for that continent.
Litigation
Because of his role as industry watchdog, Paris — and Oxebridge — have had to undergo significant litigation. In response to a 19-year plus defamation campaign perpetrated by the quality forum Elsmar.com (formerly the “Cayman Cove”), Oxebridge launched a defamation and extortion lawsuit; it is currently the prevailing party in that case. The moderators of that site include registrar representatives from DNV, NQA, BSI, and DQS (UL).
After releasing the “Public Call” document requesting that ISO temporarily pause the development of ISO 9001:2015 to consider stakeholder feedback, ISO not only rejected the call but then threatened two unsuccessful lawsuits invoking copyright and trademark infringement. Both cases were dropped by ISO before ever going to court. ISO’s Wall Street legal firm Carter Ledyard & Milburn then faced NY Bar sanctions when they falsely published an annual report claiming success against Oxebridge, and were forced to remove the document.
Oxebridge runs an “ISO Standards Users Legal Defense Fund” which readers can donate to in order to help offset the costs of its litigation efforts. More information on the fund can be found here.
Winepisser
Paris writes the irreverent wine blog Winepisser, where he reviews wine and provides commentary on all things wine-related.