Chris Paris is the founder of Oxebridge Quality Resources International, an ISO 9001 and AS9100 consulting firm with offices in North America, South America, and Australia.
Chris ParisA resident of Peru, Paris is an outspoken advocate of the users of ISO 9001/AS9100 and certification clients and “accidental watchdog” of the ISO certification scheme.
“I work tirelessly to improve both ISO standards and the surrounding certifications,” he says. “Tackling these problems occasionally puts me at odds with the industry's incumbent authorities, including the certification bodies and standards developers, but everything is always done with a focus on improving the plight of the companies that use and rely on ISO standards in their daily work.
Paris is a former chemical process engineer with Pure Tech, now Williams Advanced Materials, where he designed processes for the production of high purity physical vapor deposition (sputtering) targets. 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-1990s.
Prior to that, Paris worked in the Titanium Coated Mica (TCM) Laboratory for the Mearl Corporation, now part of 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, Paris joined the ISO 9001 implementation team in 1988 and helped implement one of the first ISO 9001 certified quality systems in the industry.
Paris’s reporting has appeared not only on the Oxebridge Report but also on Japan Today, Marketwatch, InfoSec Island, Quality System Update, and more.
Paris is the author of Surviving ISO 9001 and Surviving AS9100 Rev. D, as well as the parody standards Eyesore 9001 and DumbAS 9100.
How did you get your start in the finishing industry?
My role is helping finishers with Nadcap and AS9100, and finishers and platers were among the first to embrace ISO 9001 and AS9100. So were some of my earliest clients.
What do you enjoy best about the industry?
I’m a chemical nerd, with my first job being in a chem lab, so the “wet stuff” always appealed to me. I even love the smell of the tanks.
If money was no object, what would you do all day?
Sit on a beach and writing.
If you could go back in time, what year would you travel to?
Something with dinosaurs. I would want to bring armor, though.
How would your friends describe you?
I run an ISO Whistleblower program. What are “friends”?
What are your hobbies?
Writing, a little bit of gaming, drawing THE AUDITOR comic strip. Basically, nerd stuff.
What is the best gift you have been given?
My first PC. Without it, I would still be using a typewriter to write with.
Aside from necessities, what one thing could you not go a day without?
Coffee.
Two pet peeves.
Fraud and feet. I hate feet. I have an anti-foot fetish. Don’t get me started.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Doing the same thing but in a colder country. I’m currently in Peru.
If you were a superhero, what powers would you have?
When I say something, people would listen. Nowadays, you need that as a superpower because no one listens.
What would you do if you won the lottery?
Buy the lottery. Those guys make the real money.
What's your favorite zoo animal?
The zookeeper.
If you could go back in time to change one thing, what would it be?
Cut my hair as a kid. Allowing me to have 1970’s long hair was a huge mistake.
Would you rather trade intelligence for looks or looks for intelligence?
As an ugly, dumb person, I resent the question.
What's your favorite holiday?
Halloween. One day a year, people dress up to look like me.
What's the most daring thing you've ever done?
Rollercoaster. I have a dread fear of them and went on one anyway. Never again, and you can’t make me you sadist.
What was the last thing you watched on TV?
Godzilla Singular Point. Seriously.
What was the last book you read?
Lysistrata, but not because I’m trying to impress anyone. I was researching a really immature joke for my comic strip.
What's your favorite type of foreign food?
Aji de gallina, from Peru.
Are you a clean or messy person?
Clean, but I have my moments.
Who would you want to play you in a movie of your life?
It would be animated, so I could do my own voiceover. Failing that, Tilda Swinton.
What's your favorite fast-food chain?
Steak-n-Shake. I will burn down villages for Steak-n-Shake.
What's your favorite family recipe?
German potato pancakes.
What's your favorite family tradition?
Shouting at airplane contrails because they will kill you. Also, cage fights.
What is your favorite childhood memory?
Family cage fights.
What's your favorite movie?
Blade Runner.
