Governance and independence

The Foundation is being constituted as a not-for-profit body, so that no owner profits from the mark and any surplus is applied to its purpose. The exact legal form and constitutional terms will be confirmed on incorporation and published here.

The Foundation will not deliver implementation work, engage Practitioners or compete with its members. It stewards the IDEA standard, accredits independent Assayers and maintains the Register. It does not assess engagements; independent Assayers do.

The board is designed so that no single commercial interest holds a majority, with seats intended for independent and public-interest members, and so that the founding contributor cannot carry a decision on its own.

Conflicts of interest will be recorded and managed: a board member with an interest in a matter declares it and does not vote on it. The same principle runs through the scheme as a whole — an Assayer may not assess work in which it holds a commercial interest.

The IDEA standard was developed in enterprise procurement and contributed to the Foundation by OAI Limited. Any founder rights OAI Limited holds are stated plainly rather than concealed: a disclosed dependency can be tested and bounded. The independence page sets out the intended limits on those rights.