Beatriz Ghirelli

Beatriz Ghirelli de Ciaburri (30 April 1915 – 11 September 1992) was an Argentine engineer and a pioneer of standardisation practices.

Early life and education Beatriz Ghirelli was born in Buenos Aires on 30 April 1915.

Career She worked at the Instituto Argentino de Normalización y Certificación (IRAM), and was appointed Director in 1953. There she dedicated herself to standardisation, setting up the process for applications for the IRAM seal of approval. As Technical Director of IRAM, on 6 April 1957 she gave a speech on the standardisation of materials for LS-10 Radio Libertad, stating that standardisation was the way to improve productivity, as it offered "a true economic benefit and a better standard of living."

Ghirelli's task was to raise awareness of and convince the production and consumption sectors of the advantages of adopting quality mark systems. Her work would take her beyond Argentina, promoting the formation of a Pan-American Committee of Technical Standards.

The Comisión Panamericana de Normas Técnicas (COPANT) (the Pan American Commission for Technical Standards) was created in 1949 in São Paulo. At their 27 April 1961 meeting in Montevideo, Beatriz Ghirelli de Ciaburri was appointed General Secretary, and became the nerve centre of the organisation. She was later appointed Honorary Secretary in 1988.

She was called Doña Beatriz, and sometimes referred to as "The Iron Lady", as she did not shy away from hard work or controversy, often being the lone woman amongst men for much of her career.

Pablo J. Benia commemorated Ghirelli in an obituary for the Comisión Panamericana de Normas Técnicas writing "Que quienes lean estas líneas le rindan con su pensamiento el justiciero homenaje a quien fue un faro que iluminó a toda América para señalarnos el camino de la unión." ("Let those who read these lines pay with their thoughts the righteous homage to who was a lighthouse that illuminated all of America to point us towards a union."