I’d feel sorry for Sam Somerville, the former BSI rep and current QMS consultant who headed up the disastrous ISO 9001:2026 rewrite effort, except she deserves every bit of shaming one can throw at her. She is a serial liar, hopeless corporate toady, and perpetual gaslighter.
In her most recent public display of utter shamelessness, Somerville posted a long-winded diatribe apparently triggered by the fact that everyone hates the new ISO 9001 standard and is holding TC 176 folks accountable. To that end, she trotted out the ancient (I mean outright antediluvian) argument that TC 176 folks are volunteers who deserve our praise and love. It was absolutely cringeworthy, and I invite you to go read it.
In the post, she claims that ISO standards are based on “consensus” — which I have debunked here — hoping that you will forget the fact that the world voted — five entire times! — not to update the ISO 9001 standard at all.
Next, she says that TC 176 goons “work quietly” and without any expectation of recognition, even as people like Devindra Chattergoon and Andy Nichols and Somerville herself flood social media with their posts on their “volunteering.” In the post, she insists — straightfaced — that she’s not trying to profit and doesn’t conflate her ISO consulting gig with her standards-making gig. Now, mind you, she posted this ISO 9001 update from a profile that explicitly labels her an “ISO Management Consultant.”
I suspect the reason her husband has to pay for her ISO work is that nobody is going to hire a consultant who makes up a nonsensical concept like “opportunity-based thinking” and forces the world to pay billions to implement it, rejecting all common-sense calls to stop it.
Finally, Somerville pretended to invite critics to the table, writing:
So, to those who criticise: fantastic — get involved, and join the effort to develop [standards.]
Well, I wasn’t going to let Somerville get away with outright lying to the entire planet, so I posted my (now dated) TC 176 “volunteer meme.” At the same time, another ISO 9001 critic, Jean-Marie Reilhac, posted a less satirical criticism of her post. You know, the post where she just invited “critics” to “get involved.”
What did Somerville do? In only five minutes, she deleted both my comment and Reilhac’s, displaying a wholesale contempt for criticism, consensus, and debate.
The problem for Somerville, however, is that I screenshot everything. Here is the original post with our comments prior to her deletions (click to enlarge):
What an absolute ethical monstrosity this woman is. But it’s fine, she will go down in history as having been the architect of the nonsensical “opportunity-based thinking” as well as a complete gaslighter. She gets to live with that.
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
