Gemalto announced CEO succession plan, Kantara changes
07 April, 2016
category: Biometrics, Digital ID, Government, Smart Cards
Gemalto CEO Piou retiring, COO Vallée tapped
Gemalto announced that Chief Executive Officer Olivier Piou has decided to retire from the company at the end of August. Philippe Vallée, currently chief operating officer of Gemalto, will be proposed by the board of directors at the annual general meeting of shareholders to become an executive director of the board and the company’s new CEO, effective September 1. Piou will be proposed by the board to continue to serve as a non-executive director.
Piou, 57, who joined in 1981, has led the Company 18 years, first known as the Smart Cards division of Schlumberger. He introduced it to the stock market in 2004 under the name of Axalto, and then conducted the successful merger of equals with Gemplus, which created Gemalto in 2006. Under his leadership Gemalto is doing business in 190 countries with more than 14,000 employees of over 100 nationalities.
Philippe Vallée, 51, joined the company in 1992. He is Gemalto’s chief operating officer, with operational responsibility for all the company’s businesses. He led critical projects for the company such as the EMV ramp up in the U.S., the integration of SafeNet, the group’s biggest acquisition to reinforce Gemalto presence in the rapidly growing space of cyber security, and the development of government programs to capture the growth of this expanding market. Vallée has 27-years of experience in the digital security space, both on the embedded software and product side and on the back-end data center and cloud technology side.
He graduated from the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble engineering school and from the ESSEC business school. He has held a number of executive roles in Gemalto, during which he developed his technological knowledge, his marketing skills and his leadership capacity, including executive vice president Telecom, vice president of sales and business development, and chief technology officer.
Kantara changing entity type
The Kantara Initiative announced that it has changed its entity type by filing Articles of Conversion. As of January 2016, Kantara Initiative is now an autonomous entity seeking IRS non-profit 501(c)(6) recognition. The organization, founded in 2009, was formerly a program of IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization (IEEE-ISTO).
Kantara Initiative leadership decided to take this step to become an independent corporation because of the size and activity levels the organization has reached, the industry recognition it has attained and its need to have more operational flexibility. Its programs and activities will continue to operate as before, under the new framework.
150 FIDO-certified products on the market
There are now more than 150 FIDO Certified products, up 50% in just one quarter. This latest round of certifications comes after the FIDO Alliance hosted its first Korean-based interoperability-testing event, which garnered the largest number of FIDO-implementing companies ever in a single event.
Organizations attending these events are able to test and validate their FIDO implementations to prove that their certified products truly interoperate with each other – a necessity for achieving the FIDO Alliance’s vision for universal and interoperable strong authentication.
Organizations with new FIDO Certified products announced today include: BTWorks Inc., Crosscert, CrucialTec, Dayside, Inc., eWBM Co., Ltd., FacialNetwork Inc., GOTrust Technology Inc. (GO-Trust), HANCOM Secure Inc., INITECH Co., Ltd., International Systems Research Co., KICA Inc. (Korea Information Certificate Authority), KT, Open Security Research, Inc., SECUVE, SGA Solutions, SK Planet, SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
Lenovo ThinkPads using TPMs from Infineon
The new Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks will be equipped with OPTIGA Trusted Platform Module chips by Infineon Technologies AG.
Lenovo’s new ThinkPad notebooks based on the sixth generation Intel Core Processor family use the OPTIGA TPM SLB 9670 chip which is designed to increase the data security of laptops and tablet PCs. Sensitive data such as security keys, certificates and passwords can be stored in the TPM chip separately from the main processor and are better protected against hacker attacks.
Lenovo already uses Infineon’s embedded Secure Element (eSE) chips for its smartphones Lenovo X3 and Lenovo Vibe P1. The chips protect the security functions of the mobile devices. This includes transfer of sensitive payment credentials when using the phones for contactless payment at points of sale as well as mobile ticketing in public transportation.
Suprema releases new biometric terminal
Suprema, a biometrics and security technology provider, unveiled its BioStation L2 fingerprint terminal, an access control and time attendance solution.
BioStation L2 is a mid-range device that can support enterprise-level requirements in both access control and time attendance. BioStation L2 features clear color LCD that provides important information. Along with a dedicated TA function & number touch keys, BioStation L2 ensures maximized usability.
