Board of Directors

Walter Hamilton, Vice Chairman
ID Technology Partners
Mr. Hamilton is a Senior Consultant with Identification Technology Partners (IDTP). Mr. Hamilton brings valuable experience in the biometric industry and plays a vital role as a recognized industry authority and subject matter expert. Prior to his association with IDTP, Mr. Hamilton served as Vice President and General Manager; Biometric Solutions for Saflink Corporation where he helped lead that company’s transition from proprietary fingerprint biometric products to an open-systems multi-biometric software solution provider. Mr. Hamilton has been committed to advancing biometric technologies and is an advocate for adoption of open standards, crucial for industry development. Mr. Hamilton is a welcomed presenter and panelist at industry and government symposiums and conferences. Mr. Hamilton was recently elected to a seventh term as Chairman and President of the International Biometrics & Identification Association (IBIA), a Washington, DC-based non-profit trade association. He also serves as Chairman of The Biometric Foundation (TBF), a non-profit research and education organization. Prior to joining Saflink in 1995, Mr. Hamilton completed a distinguished 30-year career with Unisys Corporation.
  

Mike DePasquale, Treasurer
BIO-key International
Mr. DePasquale with more than 25 years of successful executive and sales and marketing experience was named Director and CEO of BIO-key International in January of 2003. During the past eight years he has been responsible for the company’s transition from a development stage enterprise to a leading supplier of biometric and public safety software. Prior to BIO-key he was President and CEO of Prism eSolutions a company specializing in professional consulting services and online solutions for ISO-9001/14000 certification for customers in manufacturing, healthcare and government markets. Mr. DePasquale has also served as Group Vice President for WRC Media, Sr. Vice President of Jostens Learning, Vice President of Sales and Marketing with McGraw-Hill; and as Director of Marketing and Sales Group Manager with Digital Equipment Corporation. Mr. DePasquale holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Management and Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and has attended both the Harvard University and Babson College Executive Development Programs. 

Christer Bergman, Secretary
Fujitsu Frontech North America
Mr. Bergman, vice president of biometric solutions Fujitsu Frontech North America, is charged with leading the market development of the PalmSecure technology and growing the product offerings into a larger biometric solutions business. He is also tasked with actively driving Fujitsu’s global effort in the business transition and coordinating the company’s biometric resources.

Mr. Bergman is the founder of Novexus, LLC a business development consultancy company based in Vienna, Virginia. Since 2000, Mr. Bergman has been a well-known business leader in the Security and Biometrics industry. In addition to his role within Fujitsu, he also serves as Board of Director for WCC Group, Fingerprint Cards AB and Ubiqo AB. He has also served as Board of Director for SweCard AB and for Quard Technology AS. The focus of his services is within the Biometrics and Security industry as well as business development and business expansion for non-US based companies into the US marketplace.

Mr. Bergman was the President of Precise Biometrics, Inc., between 2000 and 2006, and President and CEO of Precise Biometrics, AB, between 2001 and 2006. He also served as a Member of the Precise Biometrics Board of Directors between 2005 until 2007.

Prior to joining Precise Biometrics, he held numerous positions in the high tech industries in the US and Europe. Among the positions he served was President & CEO of VIDAR Systems Corporation, Regional Director of Informix Software Scandinavia and Sales Director for Hewlett Packard in Sweden. Mr. Bergman earned a Master of Science Degree from the Lund Institute of Technology in Sweden, as well as from University of California, Berkeley.

Mr. Bergman is a member of the board of the International Biometrics & Identification Association (IBIA), is well known in the industry and has been involved in numerous speaking engagements before industry groups as well as the Congress . Mr. Bergman resides in Virginia with his wife and three sons.

David Buckley, Director
Cross Match Technologies
David Buckley joined Cross Match in 2011 as President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Buckley brings more than 25 years of business experience on which to draw and lead the company through dynamic changes in the biometric arena. Most recently, Mr. Buckley was CEO of Vectronix Incorporated, a Safran Group company and leader in optronics and advanced systems designed for the military. He has also held senior leadership positions at Modtech Holdings, General Electric Company, and Price Waterhouse. Prior to working in the private sector, Mr. Buckley served as a Surface Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy, as both an engineering officer and a company systems officer. The vessels on which he served were involved in the Gulf War, Panama and counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean. Mr. Buckley holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy where he focused on optical physics, and a Masters in Business Administration from the Wharton School of Business where he studied operational management.

Ming Hsieh, Director
Cogent Systems, Inc.
Mr. Hsieh has served as CEO, president and chairman of the Board of Directors since founding Cogent in 1990. He is responsible for the company’s executive management, including long-range planning and corporate growth, as well as developing and implementing company policies, procedures and philosophies. Cogent is a leading provider of Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems, or AFIS, and other fingerprint biometric solutions to governments, law enforcement agencies and other organizations worldwide.

Charles Koo, Director
Iris ID
Charles Koo is the CEO of LG Electronics USA, Iris Technology Division. He had the vision for, and was instrumental in establishing the Global Business Unit responsible for the direction and performance of all of LG iris recognition activities worldwide. Until recently Chairman of LG Electronics USA, a subsidiary of LG Electronics Inc, Mr. Koo was also responsible for establishing, and running LG Executive Office of the Americas, an entity that served as a catalyst to leverage LG presence across markets in both North and South America—an important step in the visible global emergence of LG as a manufacturer of LG branded products in addition to its extensive undertakings in the OEM sector. Prior to his work to consolidate group activities in North America, Mr. Koo was President and CEO of LG Trading, Inc. Mr. Koo has worked for LG for more than 30 years. In addition to his current executive responsibilities driving the development and propagation of new technologies and looking for synergy for iris recognition-based authentication within other LG lines of business, Mr. Koo also serves as Vice-Chairman of LG Corp., the publicly-traded (Korea Stock Exchange) holding company for an $85+billion enterprise active in Electronics, Chemicals, Telecommunications and Services. Married and a father, he enjoys golf, travel, opera and the arts.

John Mears, Director
Lockheed Martin Company
Mr. Mears is the Director of Biometric and Identity Management Solutions for the Citizen Protection Solutions line of business within the Lockheed Martin IS&GS Civil operating unit. In this position, he is responsible for program performance, segment strategy, and technology plans for biometric identification and verification applications across the major market segments. He has run the cross-corporate Biometrics Task Force as Chairman since 2006. Major program responsibilities for Mr. Mears include the Transportation Worker’s Identification Credential (TWIC) program for the TSA, and the FBI’s Card Scanning Service IV (CSS IV) program. Research programs he has initiated include Lockheed Martin’s rapid DNA identification program, and the NIST Multi-Biometric Grand Challenge project for face and iris biometric fusion. Mr. Mears began his career with the IBM Corporation in Gaithersburg, Md. Among other assignments, he was lead satellite tracking station engineer for the U.S. Global Positioning System. In addition, he spent two years on assignment in the U.K. establishing commercial product development activities within the Hursley Lab in Hampshire. Mr. Mears holds both Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida, and he has more than 30 years of experience in advanced technology solutions, market development, and product management.

Gary A. Toretti, Director
AT&T
Gary Toretti is the Executive Director of the Identity & Access Management Security group at AT&T. In this position, he is responsible for providing enterprise-wide management and leadership for the company’s strong authentication environment (including voice & finger print biometrics), overall single sign-on, identity management life cycle, role based access control, and compliance for AT&T. Recently, he coordinated a Cyber Security Best Practices Working Group under the oversight of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Previously, he was an Executive Director providing enterprise-wide leadership over the former Cingular’s Security Operations Team. Prior to joining Cingular, Gary was a Senior Vice President Technology Executive over Security Operations for Bank of America. Mr. Toretti has approximately thirty years experience in the information technology industry with primary emphasis the last thirteen years on information security. He holds two Bachelor Degrees in Accounting and Information Systems from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Duquesne University, a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification, a Certified Information Security Manager certification (CISM) and a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) professional certification.

Daniel Vassy, Director
MorphoTrak, Inc.
Mr. Daniel Vassy joined MorphoTrak, a subsidiary of Safran USA, as the President & CEO in April-2009. MorphoTrak and its global parent Sagem Sécurité (part of the Safran Group) are leading innovators in large fingerprint/face/iris identification systems, smart cards, secure documents, and drivers’ licenses. Mr.Vassy leads MorphoTrak in its mission to be the leading supplier of identification solutions to the U.S. and Canadian markets. Mr. Vassy has an extensive history of leadership positions in the security and electronics industries. He started his career in 1983 as a co-founder of Morpho Systems (later acquired by Sagem Sécurité). Joining Valeo Security Systems in 1992, he became the Managing Director, Security Electronics Division in 1998 with worldwide product P&L responsibility, then became the Director, International Affairs & Electronic Manufacturing in 2002. In 2004, he joined TREVES Group as the Group Vice-President of Business Development. From 2006 to 2009, Mr. Vassy was at JABIL where he became Vice-President for the automotive sector with P&L responsibility for worldwide automotive activity overseeing facilities in Europe, U.S., Mexico, and China. Mr. Vassy graduated with a Master’s Degree in Science and Executive Engineering from École Nationale Supérieure Des Mines de Paris and has an MBA from INSEAD located in Fontainebleau, France.