OCR Labs, ID.me, IDnow, Idex Biometrics announce new executives

Businesses operating in the busy biometrics and digital ID markets have recently unveiled new executive hires to expand the reach and effectiveness, innovation or profitability of their solutions.

The first is digital ID verification expert OCR Labs, which has appointed Shane Oren as its new chief revenue officer (CRO).

Prior to joining the company, Oren spent 12 years in sales, managing a total of 16 account executives responsible for $500 million of annual revenue.

Companies on Oren’s CV include Applied Materials, NetSuite, NICE, and most recently Recurly.

In his new role for OCR Labs, Oren said he will focus on process, training, and enablement to help the company grow further.

He will also oversee the growth of the OCR Labs team in the U.S., and hopes to recruit 34 additional individuals over the next 12 months.

“The leadership team is strong, but also a pleasure to work with,” Oren says, commenting on the news.

“But there was also an opportunity where I felt I have a part to play in taking OCR Labs to the next level in the US and internationally. 2022 is already an exciting year for the company, but it will only get better.”

ID.me hires David Kensick as chief experience officer

Digital ID solutions provider ID.me has hired David Kensick as its chief experience officer.

Kensick’s focus in his new role will be on continuing to improve ID.me’s customer experience. Beyond some criminals exploiting vulnerabilities in ID.me to defraud the U.S. government of millions of dollars in bogus welfare, many people have faced extremely difficult user experiences.

Of course, ID.me has had successes that in less concerning times would be more newsworthy. The state of California, for example, has said $125 billion in unemployment fraud was prevented in 2020 “by deploying a new identity verification system, ID.me, in 2020 and partnering with Thomson Reuters to help detect and prevent UI and PUA fraud.”

Before joining the company, Kensick worked at United Airlines for over 20 years, and before that served in the U.S. Air Force for over 20 years as an F-16 pilot.

“It is critical that our customers who use ID.me – especially first-time users – have a positive time that flows as smoothly as possible,” Kensick explains.

“My background in the military and the airline industry will help ID.me identify friction points and smooth them out to deliver a safer and more convenient experience for the people we serve.”

The news comes days after ID.me received the International Standards Organization (ISO) 27001 certification for its digital ID solution.

Jean-Marc Guyot is IDnow’s new vice president of R&D

IDnow has appointed Jean-Marc Guyot as its new vice president of R&D (research and development).

In his new role, Guyot will focus on the further unification and development of one joint platform for the European market.

More specifically, his responsibilities will include: uniting the IDnow and Ariadnext engineering teams (following the firms’ portfolio combination last year), orchestrating technological choices and orientations, and defining architectures to meet the product teams’ requirements.

“I’m looking forward to building a high-performing engineering department at IDnow,” says Guyot.

“The former IDnow and Ariadnext teams both have valuable benefits and skills and my job will be to bring this together into one platform that answers the needs of European companies across jurisdictions and use cases.”

The hire comes at a time of growth for IDnow, which last month announced an increase in order intake by 95 percent driven by sales of its unified, digital identity platform.

Idex Biometrics promotes Eileen Wynne to interim CFO position

Eileen Wynne, former executive vice president and chief accounting officer at Analog Devices has been appointed as Idex Biometrics’ new interim chief financial officer (CFO).

Wynne will replace Jamie Simms, who will step down from his position as CFO effective August 15, 2022.

Wynn has been supporting Idex on a consulting basis since December 2020 and will act as the company’s CFO until an official replacement for Simms is found.

“On behalf of Idex, I want to thank Jamie for his contributions to Idex,” Idex Biometrics CEO Vince Graziani says. “We wish him well in his future endeavors.”

The company has also recently entered a new partnership with Linxens to make the company a global provider of Idex’s biometric smart cards.

This post was updated at 7:33pm Eastern on July 11, 2022 to clarify the impact of ID.me on recent fraud against government programs.

Article Topics

appointments  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  ID.me  |  Idex Biometrics  |  IDnow  |  OCR Labs