It wasn't so much "developed" as "coined," as in "coining a phrase." IIRC, John Bear heard a person or persons using the term and began using it as well. It simply describes what is already going on--trying to show which schools are and are not considered comparable to accredited schools.
And to be as specific as I can, it was at a lunch table in the Reno, Nevada Hilton Hotel during the national conference of AACRAO, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, and I have no idea who the person who said it is. I could look it up, and so could you, but I'd guess it was 1994 or 1995. But it doesn't matter, any more than it matters which person first said, in the world of accounting,"GAAP" -- meaning generally accepted accounting procedures. The concept made sense, and entered common usage. So whether you say, "Is Framdoodle University GAAP accredited?" or "Does Framdoodle University have accreditation that is likely to be accepted by schools with US regional accreditation?" truly doesn't matter. The former is just a shorthand for the latter.
