FIDO Leadership

Abbie Barbir is a member of Aetna Global Information Security where he serves as a Senior Security Advisor in the areas of Identity Management, Mobile devices and Authentication. Mr. Barbir has extensive experience in identity and access management. He has worked with many standard organizations on developing next generation authentication technologies. Mr. Barbir holds a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, USA. In his more than 25 years in the software and security industry, he has been a professor of Computer Science, an application developer, data compression and encryption inventor, systems architect, security architect, engineering manager, consultant, author, and inventor of numerous security algorithms and articles.

Sean Estrada is Head of Industry Security Engagement, where he is responsible for driving Amazon’s engagement with security standards organizations and alliances. As a member of the Information Security team, he is an internal subject matter expert and leader in payment security risk and controls, and security’s liaison to legal and public policy teams across Amazon. Prior to joining Amazon, he worked for American Express as a founding member of the PCI Security Standards Council, advocating for a risk-based approach to securing payments. Sean holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting Information Systems from the University of Southern California, and is a certified information systems security professional (CISSP) and certified information systems auditor (CISA).

John Timar leads the Information Security Architecture and Strategy group at American Express and is responsible for leading a team of security professionals who define security architecture for strategic platforms and represent American Express in industry organizations. John has over 20 years of InfoSec experience in the financial industry and chairs the FIDO Board EMVCo Committee. John holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Northern Arizona University and is a CISSP and ISSAP.

Chris is a Director of Engineering at Apple. He leads a global team of engineers building scalable web-services that enable a variety of use-cases. Chris works closely with cross-functional hardware and software teams at Apple, and is passionate about delivering secure, private, and easy-to-use products. Prior to his current role, Chris helped pioneer the first consumer use of the eSIM. With more than 20 years at Apple, he has worked on a wide range of products and services and is named as inventor on 30 US-issued patents.

Udi is a senior business development manager focused on security for mobile, large screen compute, AR/VR, and home devices. Past roles include product management of Arm’s security IP.

Udi is based in Israel and holds a degree from Tel-Aviv University.

Michal Pechoucek joined Avast as CTO in September 2019. Mr. Pechoucek leads the core technology and R&D teams supporting the work of the Avast Threat Labs, Big Data and innovation teams. He is also responsible for the company’s scientific research in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and cybersecurity. 

Before joining Avast, Mr. Pechoucek spent over twenty years as a professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Czech Technical University (CTU) in Prague, during which time he led the Department of Computer Science and founded the Artificial Intelligence Center in 2001. He also co-founded a research-oriented study programme, Open Informatics, which offers a choice of different subjects, combines different areas of informatics and approaches and continues to be taught today. 

Mr. Pechoucek has authored more than 400 high impact publications and contributed numerous innovative AI applications to research in computer science. Before joining Avast, he was the prime mover behind the creation of the Avast Chair of Cybersecurity at CTU, and in 2019, he also helped to establish the Avast funded joint CTU/Avast AI and Cybersecurity Laboratory. Today, Mr. Pechoucek continues to lecture at CTU and lead the Artificial Intelligence Center. 

While pursuing his academic career, Mr. Pechoucek co-founded several technology start-ups including cybersecurity firm Cognitive Security (in 2013 acquired by CISCO), AgentFly Technologies, which specializes in controlling autonomous aircraft traffic, and Blindspot Solutions, which develops AI for industrial applications (in 2017 acquired by Adastra Group). He directed the R&D Center for AI and Computer Security at CISCO Systems and worked as a strategist in the CISCO Security CTO office. He is also a venture partner with Evolution Equity Partners, a VC firm specialized in cybersecurity. Recently Mr. Pechoucek co-founded the prg.ai initiative aiming to transform Prague into a world-class AI super hub. 

Mr. Pechoucek graduated from University of Edinburgh and gained his PhD in Artificial Intelligence at CTU in Prague. He also worked at University of Southern California, University of Edinburgh, State University of New York at Binghamton and University of Calgary.

Mr. Mooyeon Lee is Head of the Digital Payment Team at BC Card. His team develops new technologies for payments and drives digitalization across all payment services. Mr. Lee led the adoption of FIDO based bio-authentication in Korea for the first time in 2015. He has more than 10 years of experience in the payment industry.

James Ahern is Daon’s CTO and a member of the Board of Directors. He is responsible for the research, development, and cloud services functions within Daon. He has overall responsibility for the technical leadership and direction of all Daon products and services. The Research team works on leading edge technology, developing new biometric algorithms which make it easier for consumers to interact online. The Engineering teams are responsible for the software products Daon delivers which incorporate that leading-edge research and support many of the largest authentication and biometric systems in the world. The Cloud Services team now delivers Daon’s software products as a service for customers with a scalable, secure and fully multi-tenant offering for small and large customers around the globe. James is Daon’s representative to the FIDO Alliance board and is an accomplished inventor with multiple patents to his name.

Prior to joining Daon, James worked at Electronic Data Systems (EDS) for seven years as a Systems Engineer where he developed and delivered computing systems for the US Government, General Motors, and a number of other clients. James holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and Microelectronics from University College Cork.

Karen Chang focuses on international collaboration and government relationships at Egis Technology Inc. She previously served for government agencies such as the Office of Science and Technology and Ministry of Economic Affairs. Ms. Chang is deeply involved in the ICT industry, such as information security, e-government applications, open data and big data policy. (In 2015 and 2016, Taiwan won top 1 of OKFN Open Data Index among 146 countries in the world.) Ms. Chang is currently the Chairperson of the Business Case/Application Working Group of Asia PKI Consortium (APKIC), FIDO Alliance Liaison Officer to APKIC, Project Consultant of Academia Sinica of Taiwan, Chairperson of FIDO-PKI Integration Working Group in Taiwan Association of Information and Communication Standards, and the Advisor of TWCERT/CC.

Dario Salice is a Product Manager at Facebook. He works on Trust & Safety-related topics for the Workplace from Facebook platform, empowering cross functional-teams to build a safe, secure, and inclusive place to collaborate and work. Dario is also involved in various initiatives across Facebook to provide strong authentication solutions for everyone. Before that he was a Product Manager at Google working with high risk individuals.

Tibi Zhang is the Vice President, Managing Director of Feitian International Business. In this role, she is responsible for driving strategic direction, business development, and overseas market expansion for Feitian’s entire portfolio across the spectrum of online banking, PKI initiatives, multi-factor authentication, mobile security and payment, cloud authentication server, EMV innovation payment solution, powered card with display, BLE connection and biometric authentication, and the ongoing evolution of FIDO authentication through best-of-breed security hardware, software and services. She has worked with Tier-one service providers and leading enterprises across the globe to deliver innovation, value and growth to Feitian’s valued customers and partners. Ms. Tibi holds a Masters Degree of Information Systems Engineering from University of Manchester in UK.

Sam Srinivas is Product Management Director, Information Security at Google and is responsible for various external and internal security initiatives. His team leads Google’s existing and new products in consumer strong authentication, such as 2-step verification, and he works in close coordination with Google’s Identity team. Prior to Google, Mr. Srinivas was Chief Technologist in the Security Business Unit at Juniper Networks. He came to Juniper through the $400M acquisition of a startup he co-founded, Neoteris, which established the SSL-VPN remote access category. Earlier, Mr. Srinivas was at Healtheon (WebMD), Microsoft Research and Rockwell. Mr. Srinivas has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Bojan Simic is the Chief Technology Officer and Cofounder of HYPR. Previously, he served as an information security consultant for Fortune 500 enterprises in the financial and insurance verticals conducting security architecture reviews, threat modeling, and penetration testing. Bojan has a passion for deploying applied cryptography implementations across security-critical software in both the public and private sectors. His extensive experience in decentralized authentication and cryptography have served as the underlying foundation for HYPR technology.

Andrew Hughes CISM CISSP is a digital identity strategist, international identity standards expert and regular speaker at industry events. Andrew is active as a national expert on the Standards Canada delegations to ISO SC 27 for identity assurance and proofing; and ISO SC 17 for mobile driver license and mobile ID applications. He works with many international associations and standards bodies including Kantara, W3C, ISO, ITU-T, Rebooting Web of Trust and Internet Identity Workshop. He serves as Chair of the Kantara Leadership Council, setting the work programme for this global consortium which advances innovation and standardization of trustworthy use of identity and personal data. He is deeply engaged in discovering the ‘missing model’ of identity verification; data processing authorization and consent; and W3C Verifiable Credentials evolution.

As Director, Identity Architecture at IDEMIA, Andrew is responsible for ensuring that IDEMIA Digital Identity product teams are building products that meet the requirements of international standards; and that IDEMIA products evolve to support new, innovative technologies and approaches for Digital Identity.

Stefania is the Director of Marketing and Business Development for Embedded Security at Infineon Technologies Americas. In her role, she is responsible for driving business development activities and strategies in the segments of Authentication, IoT security and connected devices. Prior to joining Infineon, Stefania has held several roles in business development in the semiconductors and mobile security space. Most recently, she was the VP of Business Development for the Americas at Sequent, where she was responsible for business opportunities and strategic alliances in the mobile payments space. Stefania has a Degree in Electrical Engineering and Microelectronics from Universita’ degli Studi in Pavia, Italy.

Matthieu Nunnink is the Lead Architect for Identity and Access Management at ING Bank. He is responsible for the architecture and implementation of the various IAM services (Identity, Authentication, Authorization, and Cryptography). In addition to this role, he is ING Bank’s representative on the FIDO Alliance Board of Directors, which aims to simplify online authentication. Prior to this role he has held several positions in online banking, innovation, security and infrastructure. Mr. Nunnink received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Amsterdam. More information can be found on his LinkedIn profile: nl.linkedin.com/in/mnunnink

James Cole, Senior Director Security Architecture & Strategic Planning and the Global Security Domain Lead at Intel Corporation is responsible for various aspects of Intel’s security portfolio along with strategic alignment and leadership across the company for security related technologies. Mr. Cole has over 20 years of experience as a senior technical and business leader at Intel in a variety of business units and functional roles from strategy and marketing to technical leadership positions. Mr. Cole and his team currently drive security strategy and define the security solutions spanning the Intel product lines and business units. Mr. Cole has a BS in Computer Science from Purdue University along with an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Philipp Pointner facilitates Jumio’s product strategy and, with his team, turns visions into products. Prior to Jumio, Philipp was responsible for paysafecard, Europe’s most popular prepaid solution for online purchases. Earlier Philipp spent 10 years in the Payments Industry working on the Issuing and Acquiring side.

Joe Pennisi has established a substantial reputation for his Personal Computer technical expertise over the past 25 years. Since joining IBM in 1991, he has held technical leadership positions in desktop system development, software development and system and software security. He is currently a Distinguished Engineer within Lenovo’s Ecosystem & Cloud Services business and owns responsibility for developing and driving Lenovo’s Security strategy for its Personal Computer and Windows Ecosystem & Cloud Services businesses. His expertise spans multiple knowledge domains within the PC industry, from his foundation of system design experience in hardware, ASICs, logic boards and BIOS, to system manufacturing and system service, application software architecture, development and processes. Throughout these activities he lead many of the security initiatives in both hardware and software – from developing IBM’s first pluggable TPM designs, to driving all IBM/Lenovo commercial fingerprint initiatives since first introduced in ThinkPad in 2004. He continues to influence and drive security into products from hardware to BIOS to software. His presence in FIDO as a founding Board member can be traced back to his first introduction to the concept in 2010, and is driven by his recognition of how this standard benefits the entire on-line authentication ecosystem.

Naohisa Ichihara is currently the manager of the Application Security Team at LINE Corporation. He first started working as an engineer at major system integrator NTT DATA in 1995, where he was engaged in smart card OS and service security design, vulnerability countermeasure programs, and a project to acquire Common Criteria certification. From 2006 to 2010, Ichihara was involved in NFC technical use standardization activities as a member of the NFC Forum, and from 2006 until the present he has variously served as the project leader or project manager in smart card, NFC, web application and mobile application system development projects and security consulting work.

Yaser Masoudnia is the Senior Director Product Manager of Identity and Access Management at LogMeIn, where he is responsible for the development and innovation of all LogMeIn IAM products including LastPass. A serial entrepreneur in the cybersecurity industry, Yaser most recently served as CEO and co-founder of NoPassword (acquired by LogMeIn), an identity and access solution provider.

Brian Piel leads platform strategy and innovation within the Identity Solutions organization at Mastercard. In this role, Brian and his team are responsible for the creation of safe, simple and smart authentication and digital identity solutions for Mastercard products, customers and cardholders globally, while ensuring the highest level of interoperability through industry standardization. Mr. Piel has over 17 years of experience in several industries including payments, technology services, and travel and tourism, and has held many roles within product innovation, solution architecture and technology delivery.

Dana Huang is a Partner Director of Software Engineering in Microsoft Cloud & AI organization, with primary responsibilities in Core Platform Security and Enterprise. In her role, she leads a group of security experts and developers to deliver core Operating System security solutions that power and protect systems, Azure cloud, intelligent edge devices, and customers. With the high demand and ever growing threats in cyber security world, her group is in the front of protection at a wide range that includes identity, credential protection, data protection, integrity protection, threat isolation, trust management, and hardware and services protection. In addition, her team provides solutions to move enterprise customers to the connected modern (cloud & data) world. Dana Huang has 24 years professional experience in software engineering and research, half of which in the security fields. She holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from Utah State University and a BS. Biomedical Engineering from Tsinghua University.

Rolf Lindemann is responsible for the development and strategy of the company’s products and solutions. Bringing more than 20 years of experience in product management, R&D and operations from the IT security industry, he has deep knowledge of security markets and technologies. Dr. Lindemann is one of the leading experts in FIDO and has been a frequent speaker at industry events.

Prior to Nok Nok Labs, Rolf Lindemann worked as Senior Director Product Management at Symantec where he was responsible for research and product strategy on device authentication in smart grids and mobile networks.

Before Symantec’s acquisition of TC TrustCenter, he was Executive Director Product Strategy at TC TrustCenter GmbH. Named to that position in 2009 he was responsible for analyzing market trends and aligning the overall product portfolio to new market opportunities.

Mr. Koichi Moriyama is Senior Director of Security Services at Marketing Platform Planning Department, NTT DOCOMO, INC. Mr. Moriyama is responsible for all security services for DOCOMO subscribers. Also, he is responsible for DOCOMO’s ID Platform, d ACCOUNT, and its authentication. He was previously responsible for driving innovations of devices, products and platform software in mobile past about 9 years, and deployed d ACCOUNT Passwordless Authentication utilizing FIDO standards. Mr. Moriyama has previously held positions with Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, Inc. and Sony Corporation, received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Keio University, and was a visiting research scholar at Georgia Institute of Technology while he was at Sony Corporation.

Benoit Grangé serves as Vice President and CTO of OneSpan, where he sets the vision and leads execution of the global product strategy, manages product development and R&D strategies and processes, and advises the company on strategic alliance partnerships and M&A activities. Mr. Grangé has been with OneSpan since 1999, and prior to his current role, has held positions of Director of Software Development and R&D Manager for OneSpan. In these roles, he has driven the development of new solutions to address new market needs; developed key OEM partnerships; structured and led R&D teams; defined, established and supervised global and local strategies for product design and development; and established and managed OneSpan’s international R&D centers across EMEA and APAC. Prior to OneSpan, Mr. Grangé was a lead engineer at DMIC, where he was responsible for designing, specifying and developing new software products in authentication, including Secret Key Exchange tools and OTP-based Single Sign On. Mr. Grangé’s extensive technical and product management skills cover the entire software life cycle, and software skills include Secret and Public Key Infrastructure, TCP/IP socket programming, EMV-CAP, Hardware Security Modules. Mr. Grangé holds a Master’s Degree in Mathematics from University of Bordeaux.

Kevin has over 20 years of product and entrepreneurial experience in digital data security, privacy and identity, having led the product lifecycle from initial strategy to execution to scale for dozens of products across multiple industries.

Kevin currently serves as Onfido’s Chief Product Officer at Onfido since 2017,  where he is responsible for the strategic evolution of their product platform and leads product management and design. He is an industry thought leader and speaker in the field of digital identity.

Previously, Kevin served as SVP of Product at data privacy management company TrustArc for over 8 years, where he designed and built the first data privacy management technology platform as the company pivoted from a non-profit to the first privately-funded technology company in this category. 

Before TrustArc, Kevin led product management for VeriSign’s SSL and Authentication businesses, which were category leaders in their markets and were eventually sold for over $1.5B.

Kevin has founded, advised and served on boards of several early stage companies through their full lifecycle including one acquisition.

Kevin has a Masters in Management from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where he is a Sloan Fellow. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he also served as a lab administrator and was active in the earliest WWW systems deployed at the University.

Dr. Le Van Gong is Senior Crypto Architect at PayPal where he helps define PayPal’s long term security strategy. He is also leading R&D projects that focus on leveraging the latest advancements in cryptography to further secure online transactions. Prior to PayPal, Dr. Le Van Gong has held various positions at Sun Microsystems, Neustar as well as Sony Electronics. He received a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Paris, France.

Dr. Giridhar D. (Giri) Mandyam is the Chief Security Architect for all IoT and Automotive products that Qualcomm produces. He has also worked at Rockwell International, Texas Instruments and Nokia. In addition to being Qualcomm’s Advisory Committee representative to the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), he has served as Chair of the W3C Geolocation Working Group. He has also served Chair of the S34-3 Ad Hoc Group on Presentation Logic and Service Frameworks for the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) and was a key contributor in development of the ATSC 3.0 specification. Dr. Mandyam is inventor or co-inventor of more than 45 issued US patents, and was recognized in 2017 by Qualcomm with the IP Achievement Award. He has also published over 80 conference and journal papers, and 5 book chapters. He is a co-author of the text Third-Generation CDMA Systems for Enhanced Data Services (Academic Press, 2002). He is also a Senior Member of the IEEE and has been a member of the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.

Alex is a Senior Manager at Raonsecure. His extensive knowledge of the Korean market combined with his experience acquired in technology companies provided Alex with a comprehensive understanding on what is at stake in the authentication industry. Alex is also the global business development manager of OmniOne, a decentralized ID-based authentication platform. Previously, he served as a Portfolio & Investment Analyst within the insurance arm of BNP Paribas for over 7 years.

Salah Machani is Director of Technology at RSA. His is responsible for RSA’s Identity and mobile products strategy and engineering. Mr. Machani has more than 20 years of experience in mobile technology, information security, and identity & access management. Prior to joining RSA, Mr. Machani held executive and senior R&D positions at Diversinet and Schlumberger/Sema Group Telecoms. He has contributed to the development of industry-leading open standards in several organizations, including IETF, OATH, OMA/WAP Forum, SMS Forum, CDG and FIDO Alliance. Mr. Machani holds a M.Sc. degree in Computer Science, a Master Degree in Computer Engineering and (ISC)2 CISSP/ISSAP certifications.

G.-J. Daniel Ahn is Head of Security Team at Mobile Communication Business, Samsung Electronics and responsible for the rigorous risk assessment, security governance and innovative solution of its device, software and services.

Willy Wei is responsible for business strategy and development of the fingerprint solution at Synaptics for PC and broad market applications. Willy has worked for Synaptics for 8 years, involved in customer marketing and engagement lead across various verticals. Prior to Synaptics, he spent most of his career in the personal computer industry, specializing in product and market research, and go-to-market strategy and execution across consumer and commercial segments.

Alain Martin is in charge of consulting services for payment systems and also represents Thales with the FIDO Alliance and the Smart Payment Association. Prior to this, he was in charge of strategic partnerships, liaising in particular with Visa and Mastercard. He was responsible for the portfolio of mobile financial services products, addressing the mobile payment needs of banks, mobile operators and transport operators. He was for eight years regional managing director for Gemalto’s POS terminal division in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Overall, Mr. Martin has 30 years of experience in the payment industry, 4 of which were spent in the USA, primarily on the introduction of smart cards for electronic purse programs. He holds a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Institut National des Sciences Appliquées in Lyon, France.

Stephen Oh is the founder and CEO of eWBM, a fabless semiconductor company specialized in secure MCU (Microprocessor). eWBM’s secure MS500 is used for a variety of IoT and security applications including FIDO2 external authenticator, LoRa module, and Industrial IoT devices. Before founding his own company in 2009, he was a vice president of Samsung Electronics, SLSI Business Unit, where his responsibility is AP (Application Processor) development and business. He was also involved with Gigabit Ethernet Standard (IEEE802.3ab) and ADSL standard (T1.413) while he was with National Semiconductor and Texas Instruments. He received his PhD/MSEE/BSEE from Purdue University.

Wil Bennett is Vice President, Enterprise Security Group, where his responsibilities include establishing and maintaining an enterprise-wide information risk security program while ensuring tight linkage with the overall corporate strategy. Mr. Bennett’s career includes over 20 years of experience in leadership roles in network prevention. Mr. Bennett holds a baccalaureate degree from The University of Texas at San Antonio and a Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in Electronic Commerce from Colorado Technical University. He is also a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Bill Leddy is a Senior Director in Risk and Authentication Technology at Visa. He was an early contributor to the FIDO vision prior to the launch of the alliance. Mr. Leddy has substantial experience in software development, development management and product management at several startups and large companies. Mr. Leddy has a BSEE from Rice University.

Brad Doctor is an innovative security professional with over 20 years of experience. As the Sr. Director of Security Architecture and Engineering currently for VMware and previously for Level 3 Communications, Mr. Doctor has been at the forefront of cloud security architecture and engineering for nearly 10 years, and has led design and engineering efforts for several commercially available security products and services. With nearly 20 patents in various technology domains Mr. Doctor not only leads, he innovates and influences the cloud security industry.

Liz Votaw leads Authentication Strategy for Wells Fargo for consumer-facing businesses, including mobile and online banking. Liz joined Wells Fargo after a 30 year career at Bank of America where she held multiple leadership positions in Innovation, Risk and Authentication. She has served on the FIDO board of directors since 2014.

Shinya Sugawara is Vice President of the ID Solution Division since April 2018. He has worked  for Yahoo ID since 2015. Shinya began his career in the media division with Yahoo! News in 2005. After holding several roles, he was a Product Manager responsible for deploying logins without passwords.

At Yubico, John Fontana focuses on the evolution of authentication and cultivating awareness around emerging standards-based authentication options that present security and privacy enhancements for both enterprises and individuals. In addition, he uses his media and social media expertise to spread understanding of identity and strong authentication and how they improve online security. He uses all he’s learned to tell stories about great technology, to build relationships and to earn trust. His goal is to make businesses and organizations smarter about technology’s benefits with the belief that smart people will encourage smart products. Mr. Fontana spent the first 12 years of his career in the newspaper business only to discover the Internet in the early 90s, where he realized that newspapers had become “yesterday’s news on your doorstep today.” He spent the next 15 years reporting/writing/publishing in print and online for tech publications, where he focused on enterprise topics including collaboration, directories, network infrastructure, databases, open source, ERP and security. He covered IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Red Hat, Google, and countless startups – many of which exploded when the first tech bubble burst. His work has appeared in the New York Times, CNN, CIO, Mashable, and the Huffington Post. He continues to pen the Identity Matters blog on ZDNet. In the summer, you’ll find him climbing mountains on his bicycle. In the winter, you’ll find him skimo racing in the high mountains of Colorado or adventure racing up and down a frozen stratovolcano in northwest New Mexico.