AOAC OMB Nomination Review (June 12, 2019)

3M Food Safety Department

3M Center Bldg. 0260-06B-01 St. Paul, MN 55144-1000

31 May 2019

To AOAC OMB,

I’m writing to enthusiastically endorse Patrick Bird’s nomination to the Official Methods Board.

As a Regulatory Manager in 3M Food Safety, I have known and worked with Pat for about 8 years, in his previous position as Laboratory Supervisor with Q Laboratories. As an AOAC Board Member and Immediate Past President of AOAC, I have observed Pat’s active leadership and participation in AOAC activities. And as a technical expert member of the US ISO Technical Advisory Group, I have observed Pat’s active participation in the development of ISO standards as an expert himself. For these reasons, I feel I am very qualified to speak to his level of expertise, leadership skills and dedication to understanding, review and evaluation of methods and acceptance of method criteria. Pat was the key contact for 3M Food Safety regarding the method validation for each of our (then, newly launched) Molecular Detection System assays, and for many of our 3M Petrifilm Rapid Plate methods. He has always been professional and thorough in his collaboration during the method validation process - from initial contact and through his active support and participation in the Expert Review Panel presentations. We (3M) have worked with others, but if there was a vote regarding with whom we would want to work – Pat would win, no question. He is 100% committed to fully completing the job and providing top notch service. disbanded the end of 2018. He was a member of the Presidential task Force, representing contract laboratories, to make recommendations for the necessary improvements needed in the RI process. He has been a key member of the Technical Program Council since 2013, working to ensure we have a quality program that well represents a global technical point of view for all of our members. And at the most recent Mid-year meeting, Pat chaired and moderated the discussion of the ISPAM working group - Quantitative Microbiology Methods Acceptance Criteria. We only had a couple of hours for discussion and this often means not enough time, but Pat successfully led the group to a conclusion (final recommendation for consideration), and the working group all left, feeling very satisfied (and very pleasantly surprised!) at the progress that was made! As a member of AOAC, Pat has served in several leadership roles. He was a member of the AOAC Research Institute Board of Directors from 2015 – until the RI BOD was