Smart Card Alliance Announces New Board Leadership for 2004

Smart Card Alliance Announces New Board Leadership for 2004

Smart Cards in Motion Conference, Ponte Vedra, Fla., October 14, 2003–The Smart Card Alliance today announced a new chairman, new board of directors members and its seven-member 2004 executive board. The Alliance’s new board of directors held elections of its executive board at the organization’s annual conference in Ponte Vedra, Florida. The executive board will lead and direct Alliance activities for the year ahead.

Kevin Gillick was elected chairman of the Alliance. As head of corporate marketing for the Datacard Group, Kevin is responsible for worldwide marketing activities associated with the company’s broad range of identity solutions, card personalization and card life cycle management systems. Kevin has represented Datacard at Alliance meetings and events since its inception, and has served on the board of directors since 1999.

“This is an exciting time for this organization and this industry,” said Gillick. “The Alliance members and board will work together with Randy Vanderhoof, our energetic and very capable executive director, to expand our programs aimed at advancing the use of smart card technology in both existing and new markets.”

”This is an exciting time for this organization and this industry,” said Gillick. “The Alliance members and board will work together with Randy Vanderhoof, our energetic and very capable executive director, to expand our programs aimed at advancing the use of smart card technology in both existing and new markets.”

Outgoing Alliance chairman Paul Beverly, president, Americas for Axalto, said, “The last two years have seen a significant uptake of smart cards in the United States, and the Smart Card Alliance played an important role in laying the foundation for that growth. Our estimate is that more than 70 million smart cards will be shipped for use in the United States and Canada this year. That is a major change from where we were two years ago.”

The executive committee includes Gillick and these board members:

  • Vice chairman, Bryan Ichikawa, solutions architect, Unisys, a newly elected board member
  • Treasurer, Bob Wilberger, director of smart card initiatives, Northrop Grumman
  • Secretary, Linda Brown, manager, business development, Infineon Technologies
  • Assistant treasurer, Keith Saunders, vice president, business development, MasterCard International, a newly elected board member
  • Assistant secretary, Alex Giakoumis, director of corporate business development, smart card and secure microcontroller ICs, Atmel Corporation
  • Technology vice chair, Gilles Lisimaque, senior vice president and co-founder, Gemplus, who was also re-elected to the board

The four other members newly elected or re-elected to the18 member board include:

  • Paul Beverly, president, Americas, Axalto
  • Kirk Brafford, director of government solutions, ActivCard, observing director representing the interests of general members
  • Ellen Endicott, vice president, smart card business development, Bank of America
  • Michael Weekes, principal, IBM Global Smart Card Solutions

Other returning board members are:

  • Thierry Burgess, executive vice president of sales and marketing, Oberthur Card Systems
  • Alison Colquhoun, vice president of smart card business development, First Data Resources
  • Greg Garback, executive officer, department of finance and program development, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), observing director
  • Bill Holcombe, director, e-business technologies, General Services Administration (GSA), observing director
  • Diana Knox, senior vice president of emerging channels, Visa USA
  • Robert Merkert, Sr., director strategic accounts, PC Security Division, SCM Microsystems, Inc.
  • Chuck Wilson, Hitachi USA

The Board’s priorities for 2004 include: addressing how smart cards resolve growing public security and privacy concerns; continued cross-industry discussions on common business applications and technology standards, and internal industry discussions on issues that influence the accelerated adoption of smart cards in the United States.

The executive committee election was held during the Alliance’s 11th Annual Conference, where smart card industry leaders gathered to discuss ‘Smart Cards in Motion.’ The focus of the conference is one of the principal drivers of the expanding use of smart card technology–mobility. The three-day agenda is rich with users who will advise attendees on the experiences of recent smart card implementations in banking, quick service restaurants and retailing, mass transit and corporate enterprises.

Smart card-based systems verify, authenticate, and protect a cardholder’s identity and personal information and are used worldwide for secure identification, payment, transit and mobile telecommunications applications by major financial institutions, retailers, government and healthcare organizations and enterprises. More information is available at https://www.securetechalliance.org.

About the Smart Card Alliance

The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to accelerate the acceptance of smart card technology. Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. For more information please visit https://www.securetechalliance.org.