Oxebridge has learned that Intertek Alchemy, an ISO consulting company, has hired a senior executive of the certification body Intertek, in what appears to be an overt violation of “threats to impartiality” under ISO 1702101.
In January of 2025, Ali Knapp, who is Intertek’s President of People Assurance, was given the simultaneous role of President of Intertek Alchemy, according to a public press release. Knapp’s LinkedIn Profile shows her holding both roles concurrently:
The official page for Knapp on the Intertek Alchemy site hides her role at Intertek, however, mentioning only prior work she had done at other companies:
According to its official website, Intertek bought consulting firm Alchemy Systems in 2018, forming “Intertek Alchemy.” Alchemy Systems had already run afoul of some conflicts of interest, having developed personnel “certification” programs that required applicants to take Alchemy’s own training courses.
Now, Intertek Alchemy offers consulting and training for ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001, including full “management system development”:
Intertek then offers certification to all three of those standards.
The ISO 17021-1 standard prohibits and limits such practices. It prevents a CB from marketing its services as “linked” to a consulting body, which would be implied in this case by the shared Intertek brand name. It then requires that “the certification body and any part of the same legal entity and any entity under the organizational control of the certification body shall not offer or provide management system consultancy.” The appointment of a shared executive — Knapp — would appear to violate this clause, as well. This is further suggested by ISO 17021-1’s note on threats to impartiality:
Sources of threats to impartiality of the certification body can be based on ownership, governance, management, personnel, shared resources, finances, contracts, training, marketing and payment of a sales commission or other inducement for the referral of new clients, etc.
The original versions of ISO 17021-1, and the ISO Guide 62 which preceded them, prohibited these practices outright. But both CBs and ABs solely develop the ISO 17021 standard, without participation by user organisations or regulators, and have worked to dilute rules related to conflicts of interest in order to expand their market opportunities. The latest edition of ISO 17021-1 has contradictory information that suggests the practices are prohibited but then offers an option for CBs to justify them on the basis of a “risk analysis.” That risk analysis is not a public document and it can never be proven if they are ever truly performed.
Now, nearly every major CB like BSI, NSF, and NQA provides consulting under the guise of “public training.” Such classes are prohibited from offering full “management system development.” Certification and accreditation bodies routinely circumvent this rule by spinning off their training and consulting companies as “separate” entities, even if they share management, staff, logos, branding and resources. While this practice would appear to be overtly prohibited by the standards, the oversight bodies refuse to enforce them, as they are paid by the offending bodies themselves.
In 2020, Oxebridge reported on how the accreditation body A2LA formed another company, A2LA Workplace Training, which shared the same offices, management and branding. An official press release announced that A2LA WPT was, in fact, an A2La company, and not a separate entity. Official A2LA graphics were then created announcing A2LA WPT as “an A2LA company.” Nevertheless, A2LA’s executive Trace McInturff unilaterally dismissed the issue, insisting “these two corporations are totally separate, independent legal organizations” and ignoring the evidence appearing on the A2LA’s own official publications to the contrary. Another A2LA executive falsely claimed that the oversight body ILAC had approved the arrangement, which ILAC later denied. Both ILAC and IAF then refused to take up the matter, and A2LA continues to operate normally to this day.
BSI previously offered QMS documentation and system development under its “BSI Entropy” product. Oxebridge filed complaints on that product, which sold procedures for quality management systems that BSI auditors later certified, but UKAS overruled the matter, siding with BSI. To date, neither UKAS nor ANAB, the US accreditation body, have ever upheld a complaint against a CB that was found performing consulting services.
In 2021, Oxebridge reported on how Intertek’s medical device certification office had announced a partnership with Globizz, a medical device consulting firm. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that an investigation into the Intertek/Globizz relationship had been opened, but no resolution was ever released.
