October 26, 2023
On Oct. 26, 2023, at its 87th general meeting, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) General Assembly voted to elect Steven Margis, director of Conformity Assessment Programs at UL Solutions, to serve as IEC Vice President and Chair of the IEC Conformity Assessment Board (CAB) with a three-year term starting on Jan. 1, 2024. The IEC Board delegates the management of the commission’s conformity assessment (CA) activities, including operational and financial management, to the CAB.
Margis will be the first representative from UL Solutions to serve in this capacity. He is also the first individual from the United States ever to have this role.
About Steven Margis
Margis has served as the chair of the IEC’s System for Conformity Assessment Schemes for Electrotechnical Equipment and Components (IECEE), known colloquially as the CB Scheme, since 2022 and previously served as IECEE vice chair. His career began over 30 years ago with UL Solutions, where he has served in numerous capacities related to global market access initiatives. He has strong foundational beliefs in a strategic approach to global conformity assessment, targeted at streamlining market access and acceptance, as well as the concept of national treatment for conformity assessment service providers. Throughout his career, Margis has focused on strategy, governance, compliance, new service development and operational efficiencies in his field. While undertaking these new roles with the IEC, he will continue his work at UL Solutions.
“I am truly honored to have been elected to the position of IEC vice president and chair of the IEC Conformity Assessment Board,” Margis said. “Through this work with a balanced set of stakeholders from around the world, the conformity assessment community has demonstrated how working together drives harmonization and serves to drive efficiencies in facilitating global trade. I look forward to working within this community to drive and inspire the continued evolution and advancement of the global conformity assessment landscape to help create a safer, more secure and sustainable world.”
Earlier in October, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) presented Margis with the Elihu Thomson Electrotechnology Medal, which honors an individual who has contributed in an exceptional, dedicated way to the field of electrotechnology standardization, conformity assessment, and related activities at the national and international levels. He is a past recipient of the Mukaidono Safety Award, the Gerald H. Ritterbusch Conformity Assessment Medal and the IEC 1906 Award. Margis is also an inaugural member of UL Solutions William Henry Merrill Society Distinguished Members of Technical Staff.
Margis also served as the chair of the United States National Committee (USNC) Host Planning Committee for the 2022 IEC General Meeting held in San Francisco.
About the IEC
As a global, not-for-profit membership organization, the IEC’s work underpins quality infrastructure and international trade in electrical and electronic goods. The organization’s work facilitates technical innovation, affordable infrastructure development, efficient and sustainable energy access, smart urbanization and transportation systems, and climate change mitigation. The IEC also aims to increase the safety of people and the environment.
The IEC brings together more than 170 countries and provides a global, neutral and independent standardization platform to 20,000 experts globally. It administers four conformity assessment systems in which members certify that devices, systems, installations, services and people work as required.
The IEC publishes around 10,000 IEC International Standards, which, together with conformity assessment, provide the technical framework that allows governments to build national quality infrastructure and companies of all sizes to buy and sell consistently safe and reliable products in most countries of the world. IEC International Standards serve as the basis for risk and quality management and are used in testing and certification to verify that manufacturers’ promises are kept.
IEC work directly underpins the targets of all 17 United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. As a Signatory to the UN Global Compact, UL Solutions also supports these sustainability goals.
Please join UL Solutions in congratulating Steven Margis on his most recent achievement with the IEC.