May 14, 2022

May 13, 2022, 6:49 pm EDT Jumio, Socure, Veriff, OCR Labs, and SITA have each taken on new talent, including three c-suite executives and two regional sales leaders. Taken collectively, the hires could be seen as an indication of biometrics providers’ recruiting power within a highly competitive market. Jumio taps new CFO amid high growth Jumio has brought Susan Walker onboard as chief financial officer, adding experience in financial strategy with scaling technology companies as it marks elevated business growth. “Jumio is entering a new phase of growth and development and we are delighted to welcome Susan at such a critical moment in the company’s evolution,” comments Robert Prigge, CEO of Jumio. “Susan’s experience in leading financial strategy in scaling technology organizations will support our high-velocity goals.” Prior to her role at Jumio, Walker was most recently CFO at enterprise data loss prevention company Digital Guardian. She also served as CFO at Telestream, Avention, and Novell, and vice president of finance and corporate strategy at Aspen Aerogels in a career spanning over 20 years. Jumio showed strong business results in April with sales growth for its face biometrics identity proofing service leaping above 140 percent  in the first quarter of 2022. It also hired Stuart Wells as its new chief technology officer and opened its Innovation Lab in San Diego. Socure brings on new CISO to promote security and trust Socure has announced the appointment of Chad Kalmes as its new CISO to direct its strategy and operations across the security, technology, and risk and compliance functions and help foster a culture of security and trust within the company. Kalmes brings over 20 years of experience in the information technology and security industries, serving senior roles at Protiviti, MobiTV, Optimizely, Twilio, and most recently, vice president of technology and risk at PagerDuty. His role at Socure will entail leadership with the company’s security and compliance strategy for its Socure ID+ selfie biometrics platform and collaborate with the product and engineering teams to implement best practices, principles and policies into the product development process, according to a company announcement. “Knowing exactly who it is that you’re transacting with is critical to building trust in the digital economy – and Socure is the proven gold standard for enabling businesses to achieve just that,” Kalmes says. “It’s an honor to join the market leader during such a phenomenal growth period, and I look forward to continuously elevating Socure’s cybersecurity capabilities and to redefine the underlying standards and frameworks driving today’s digital economy.” Kalmes joins Brendan Peter , the vice president of government relations, as one of Socure’s executive hires in 2022. Veriff adds Qualtrics, Google veteran as marketing head Veriff  has appointed Caroline Mogford as chief marketing officer to lead global demand generation for its selfie biometrics and identity verification, and increase brand awareness. Mogford’s experience spans over five years as head of marketing for Google’s Maps for Business in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Google for Education. She served executive marketing roles at Qualtrics before being hired by Veriff. “I believe that Veriff has the best ID verification technology — whether to ensure that your children are safe online playing video games, or that your taxi driver is who they say they are. This is something that should make all of our lives safer and easier,” says Mogford. Kaarel Kotkas, founder and CEO of Veriff, says, “Caroline brings a proven track record for helping companies — and individuals — to successfully scale. She will play a critical role in helping further strengthen Veriff’s position in the U.S. market and lead Veriff’s adoption in new markets.” Veriff raised $100 million in a funding round in January  with the intent to support global growth and support research and development to expand Veriff’s product portfolio. OCR Labs recruits new EMEA sales director OCR Labs has recruited Adam Desmond  as sales director for the EMEA region following an earlier fundraising round held to propel its global growth. Desmond brings significant experience in the biometrics industry, having previously served at GBG , including managing the acquisition of the IDscan solution, and as country manager at Mitek Systems  to support growth with UK banks. He will manage a dedicated EMEA sales team in industries like financial services, gaming, insurance, and telcoms. OCR Labs raised $30 million in February in part to support its EMEA market expansion . “I’ve watched OCR Labs for the past five years and have always respected the product and team,” says Desmond. “The market is shouting out for the solution OCR Labs offers, with a fully automated global solution. It’s an exciting and busy time to join the company as they look to scale quickly in EMEA, and I relish the challenge of leading sales and growing a team across all regions and sectors.” SITA books new Americas president to lead digitization Matthys Serfontein, who previous served as an executive at SITA , returns from a two-year hiatus to take on the role of president, Americas to ensure that digitization of the air transport industry can take flight. Serfontein was the president of air travel solutions and regional vice president for airport solutions in Africa at SITA, and held senior management positions at Airports Company South Africa, e.Airports, and OSI Airport Systems. He says about his new role, “As travelers return to the skies, our customers are eyeing digitalization as the key to returning to growth while meeting the new expectations of today’s passenger. With its innovative portfolio, SITA is uniquely positioned to support them. SITA has been, and continues to be, a trusted partner to the industry, and I look forward to this new opportunity to build on our exciting partnerships with customers in the Americas.” With the increasing digitization of air travel and air transport, SITA has praised Apple’s digital ID, aviation industry biometrics, and digital health passes as the changes making permanent digital ID possible in the industry . Its Air Transport IT Insights 2021 report expects a return to growth in 2022 after the turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic, with biometric boarding, health passes, and airport biometrics to become more popular in the near future.