Executive Team
Mr. Jeff Maynard – BSc
CEO, President, and Founder
Mr. Maynard first became involved with biometrics when he ran divisions for a publicly traded company that utilized biometrics in healthcare. He is a co-founder of eScript Systems™ and developed several patented biometric signature authentication inventions. He was a senior manager with two top 10 pharmaceutical companies, and an equity partner for a software development company in predictive modelling and data mining in healthcare that later sold to a public company. He has also served as Vice President of Business Development for several publicly traded health service companies in the U.S. Mr. Maynard has published numerous white papers on identity proofing and been a keynote speaker at multiple conferences. In his career, Mr. Maynard has helped to create, manage and nurture seven early stage startup companies and has been a proven performer in developing successful products and teams in both early stage and Fortune 500 companies.
Ms. Cindy Maynard – BA
Vice President of Marketing
Ms. Maynard is a co-founder of BSI and a veteran in creating growth and market value for five early stage and startup companies. Her expertise includes the development of marketing materials, strategic marketing plans, systems development, research, contracts, customer support and sales. Her efforts have been instrumental in driving new business and creating over 300% growth at BSI by developing and nurturing new customers. Ms. Maynard has also worked for an educational software company, The Toronto Star, Proctor and Gamble, and IBM.
Mr. Don Smith – CPA, BS Accounting
Chief Financial Officer
AS CFO for BSI, Mr. Smith provides his financial skills to the company. In the past 30 years, he has held various financial positions including Controller, Director of Finance and CFO. After leaving public accounting, Mr. Smith’s industry focus has centered on companies specializing in security, product distribution and housing. Mr. Smith has broad experience in banking relations, operational management and financial administration.
Mr. Chad Steen – BCS
Chief Technology Architect
A Dallas based professional with over 25 years as an architect, engineer, developer and consultant to various companies and NPOs, Mr. Steen was responsible for bringing several Collin Country cities and towns online”including Wylie, Murphy, Sachse and Lucas. Mr. Steen has been integral to the success of over a dozen startups in the U.S. and Canada, including ISPs, retailers, wholesalers and restaurants. With a love of graphics arts united with his talents as a developer, Mr. Steen has perfected an overall skill-set ideal for UI/UX, primarily for business applications. Mr. Steen holds numerous certifications in both hardware and software including from Microsoft, Cisco, Novell, Adobe and HP. Currently, Mr. Steen is also BSI’s point man for the White House sponsored NSTIC pilot and the NASPO/ANSI identity standards, as well as FIDO and GDPR policies.
Mr. Ron Kerkenaar
Chief Technology Analyst
Mr. Kerkenaar has over 30 years experience dealing with all aspects of Information Technology. He has performed analysis, design, management and deployment on projects ranging from individual users to multi-location large scale environments, and been involved with software design and development, hardware, infrastructure, deployment, support for such companies as Royal KPN N.V., Heineken International, and Pecoma Business Technology B.V. Mr. Kerkenaar has also been in charge of building and managing co-located off-shore servers for on-line gambling before UIGEA was enacted. Mr. Kerkenaar never stops learning about new technologies to stay informed in this fast-paced world, and in his personal time contributes to selective open-source projects as a developer, tester, and as a project owner.
Dr. Mark E. Sarver – PhD
Chief Behaviorist
Prior to joining BioSig, Mark was the CEO of EduKan, a six college consortia in western Kansas for online education since 1999 serving students in 41 states. Dr. Mark Sarver has served in many capacities in higher education. Prior to EduKan, he served as Vice President for Advancement at Sterling College and Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management at Mountain State University. Dr. Sarver has taught courses in leadership, organizational behavior, accounting, international business, franchise development, marketing and management. His experience in higher education strategy and assessment spans virtually all aspects of institutional management from admissions and marketing, to financial analysis, to program and course design. His experience as an academic leader includes publicly funded private not-for-profit and private for-profit institutions.
Mr. Mike McKay – BBA
With twenty five years of experience in Information Technology sales and services, and extensive knowledge of Professional Services, Enterprise Service Management and Infrastructure software, Mr. McKay participated in several start-up software ventures performing “crossing the chasm” of sales, marketing and professional services. Adept at defining business solutions to complex technical environments involving teambuilding, problem solving and leadership, he is skilled at building customer relationships. His experience includes partnering on high visibility projects with leading companies such as Lucent. Mr. McKay is an expert at implementing Zendesk customer service software and Salesforce CRM software for inbound marketing lead generation processes.
Mr. Christoph Aschbacher – MCTS
Senior Software Developer
After graduating with an engineering degree in Software Development, Mr. Aschbacher worked on high-availability ERP Machine 2 Machine systems for the automotive industry for several years. Switching roles and becoming a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist in SQL Server Database Development and Asp.net Web Applications Development, he worked professionally on enterprise scale medical software, credit card payment systems and company internal frameworks. Staying on top of technologies and practices is not only a requirement for Chris, but a passion, and he is well versed in a wide variety of programming languages, styles and practices. He focuses mostly on backend work and overall system architecture, as well as development processes and quality assurance. Mr. Aschbacher was lead-developer on several large scale open source software projects, mostly connected to the MediaPortal HTPC ecosystem.
Ms. Julie Ricke – MSC
Product Manager & Technical Support
Ms. Ricke provides front-line primary technical support to end users and clients. She provides solutions to identity authentication challenges. Julie is instrumental in deployment and integration efforts facilitating client requirements and vision into a technical solution for identity authentication services. Julie has an extensive background in learning management systems. Prior to joining BioSig-ID™ she was the Instructional Design & Technology Specialist for a consortium of six community colleges providing LMS administration, course design, and utilized BioSig-ID™ comprehensively to proactively deter and detect impostors to protect academic integrity.
Mr. David Chatham – MA
Director Of Managed Care Services
Since the 1980’s, Mr. Chatham has been involved in technology based learning. As a pioneer in putting college courses online, he worked with faculty and administrators to develop processes to create and maintain a strong online offering to Colorado students. For the last eleven years, David managed the learning management systems for the thirteen colleges of the Colorado Community College System. As Dean of Academic Technology at CCCOnline, his department handled enrollment, archiving, upgrades, tier 2 helpdesk support, programming enhancements, the introduction of new technologies, and vendor relations related to online learning. Currently, David helps other colleges and universities initiate processes utilizing the RTEN technology for monitoring student authentication.
Board of Directors
Mr. Jeff Maynard
Mr. Maynard first became involved with biometrics when he ran divisions for a publicly traded company that utilized biometrics in healthcare. Prior to founding BSI, he negotiated a $10M reverse merger and the sale of an electronic prescribing company for over $3M. He is a co-founder of eScript Systems™ and developed several patented biometric signature authentication inventions. He has senior management experience with two top 10 pharmaceutical companies, and was an equity partner for a software development company in predictive modelling and data mining in healthcare that later sold to a public company. He has also served as Vice President of Business Development for several publicly traded health service companies in the U.S. Mr. Maynard has published numerous white papers on identity proofing and been a keynote speaker at multiple conferences. Through his leadership, he has guided BSI to recognition by the State of Texas as among the top 4% of companies with breakthrough technology, and earned a New Product Innovation of the Year Award from Frost and Sullivan. Most recently, the White House chose BSI technology to reduce identity fraud on the Internet from a field of 180 competing companies. In his career, Mr. Maynard has helped to create, manage and nurture seven early stage, startup companies and has been a proven performer in developing successful products and teams in both early stage and Fortune 500 companies.
Dr. Mark Benedyk
Dr. Benedyk is an Operating Partner for Sweetwater Capital Partners where he provides board support to Sweetwater’s direct and client Life Sciences portfolio companies and advises on Sweetwater’s Life Science investments. Prior to Sweetwater, he was President & CEO of Telephus Biosciences, a company developing innovative immunotherapies to treat drug-resistant infections. He is a director at Alafair Biosciences and at Pulmotect Inc. on behalf of Sweetwater’s client investors. Dr. Benedyk is also a director at Accel-Rx, Canada’s national biotech accelerator, and an advisor to RARE Science which applies genomics insights to accelerate cures for children with rare diseases. Previously, he was Head of The Pfizer Incubator LLC (TPI), Pfizer’s corporate incubator for early stage pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Benedyk has held executive business development roles at Ascenta, Optimer (now Merck NYSE: MRK), and Elan Pharmaceuticals (now Perrigo NYSE: PRGO). He received his Ph.D. in Developmental Genetics from The Rockefeller University, where he was a Lucille P. Markey Graduate Fellow and his B.S. degree in Microbiology and Botany from the University of Michigan.
Mr. Walter Hamilton
Mr. Hamilton is a Senior Consultant with Identification Technology Partners (IDTP), a consulting firm in the identity management field. He is a recognized industry authority and subject matter expert on biometric technology. Mr. Hamilton has been committed to advancing biometric use and is an advocate for the adoption of open standards, crucial for industry development. He completed a seventh elected term as Chairman and President of the International Biometrics + Identity Association (IBIA), a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit trade association that advocates the use of technology to determine identity and enhance security, privacy, productivity and convenience. He currently serves as Vice Chairman of IBIA. In his work with IDTP, Mr. Hamilton is actively involved in supporting government clients in implementing biometric technology in the maritime and aviation transportation sectors. Prior to joining IDTP in 2006, Mr. Hamilton served as Vice President and General Manager; Biometric Solutions for Saflink Corporation. Prior to joining Saflink in 1995, Mr. Hamilton completed a distinguished 30-year career with Unisys Corporation.
Advisory Board
Mr. Doug McGovern, PhD
A Stanford trained expert in Biometrics, financial system security and authentication technologies, Dr. McGovern has contributed greatly to the field of biometrics as Technical Editor with the Smart Card Security Users Group working with Visa, MasterCard and Amex and six governments to develop a comprehensive security statement, according to the Common Criteria (CC). He has served as Test Director with the International Biometrics Group, performing tests on a variety of biometric devices. As Department Manager at Sandia National Labs he was responsible for identifying security market risks and vulnerabilities in the U.S. financial markets and evaluating security and access control systems for the Department of Energy, Navy, Air Force and Army. He has published 30 papers, authored one patent and been an invited speaker at over 10 conferences.
Mr. Robert Siciliano
Mr. Siciliano is one of the world’s leading experts in identity theft. Mr. Siciliano has appeared on over 100 TV shows including the “The Today Show,” CNN, MSNBC, FOX, CNBC, “Inside Edition,” “Tyra Banks Show,” “Sally Jesse Show,” “Montel Williams,” “Maury Povich Show,” “Gayle King Show” and the “Howard Stern Show,” and is a regular contributor to multiple televised and print news media including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, Forbes and USA Today. He is the author of three books including The Safety Minute, Living on High Alert and How to Take Control of Your Personal Security and Prevent Fraud. He is CEO of IDTheftsecurity.com, a member of the American Society for Industrial Security and an editor for Bank Fraud and IT Security.
Mr. Robert L. Robb, MSc
Mr. Robb was most recently Vice President of Technology Commercialization and Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at Dallas and has over 28 years of experience in creating, managing and nurturing early stage companies. He has funded, founded, nurtured and/or managed 23 early stage companies and served as CEO of 7 emerging enterprises. Seven of the 23 companies he assisted have established a combined capitalization in excess of $700 million. He currently serves as an Advisor to Mantford Ventures (early stage venture development company), North Texas Enterprise Center (a business incubator in Frisco, TX), the Institute of Biomedical Science and Technology at UT Dallas and the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UT Dallas, and is a consultant to several early stage enterprises. Additionally, Mr. Robb served for a total of 10 years as a venture developer and technology commercialization executive in association with Baylor College of Medicine (BCM Technologies, Inc.) and the University of Michigan. Mr. Robb’s experience includes 6 years with two venture capital firms.
Mr. Jeff Cooper, M.S., MBA, ALM Harvard (in process)
Mr. Cooper is a professional engineer with over 25 years as an enterprise architect, CTO, CIO and consultant in a wide variety of IT companies and government. Mr. Cooper is also the founder of a number of technology firms, and is currently the Chief Technologist and managing partner with JTCOOPER, LLC. Mr. Cooper, who is currently enrolled at Harvard Business School and holds 8 IT certifications (including CISSP, PMP, IEM, BCP, GSA with top secret clearance), has written 6 commercial software applications and 5 books/disks. Mr. Cooper was also a former professor in computer science at Shawnee College and Southern Ohio Business College and was the youngest senior research scientist for Owens Corning Fiberglass.
Mr. Jeff Fritts
Mr. Fritts is a successful entrepreneur, commercial real estate finance expert and an independent investor. Mr. Fritts has been president, managing partner or senior officer for successful start-ups including FrittsSesler Investments, Sarofim Realty Advisors, American Federal Bank and Loretta’s Intimates. Mr. Fritts has a proven capacity to pull deals together and manage them to success. Other notable achievements include: tripling the Central Regional real estate portfolio of The Equitable to $1.3B in two years; creating an investment banking arm, as Director of Finance, for Trammell Crow Company and serving as President of the Texas Foundation for Visually Impaired Children from 2004 to 2008. Mr. Fritts is currently creating a career reinvention web-based enterprise with career counseling partners.
Ms. Susan Hoelting, CPA, MBA
Susan was one of the first owners and former CFO of Pacesetter Energy, Inc. (“Pacesetter”), a company that provided management services to various companies in the oil and gas industry, in which the shareholders of Pacesetter had a direct or indirect interest. Over the years, Ms. Hoelting contributed significantly to the growth of Pacesetter and the structure and development of its related asset entities (approximately ten) that had a combined asset value in excess of $100M. While at Pacesetter, Ms. Hoelting managed the accounting and finance department and was primarily responsible for raising over $100 million in debt and equity funding for a variety of projects as well as supervising the department that grew to a size of ten. Ms. Hoelting also has designed, developed and maintained financial control and accounting systems to track costs, projects, daily accounting transactions, and manage cash flow. Ms Hoelting also worked for Texas Instruments as a senior financial analyst and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp as a bank liquidation specialist.
Dr. Michael Koss, MD
Michael is the co-founder of eScript Systems™ and expert in developing healthcare software. He has ten years in the electronic prescribing industry as president and founder of Prescribecare Software Ltd and RxCare Inc. He is also a practicing physician and Clinical Associate Professor at University of British Columbia.
Mr. Kevin Thornton BPHE (Hons)
Kevin Thornton currently serves as Global VP of Sales for ECi Software Solutions. Previously he held roles as Senior VP Sales at BenefitMall, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing at VanillaSoft. Prior to joining VanillaSoft, Thornton served as Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing, Americas at Corel Corporation where he was responsible for all regional sales, marketing, alliances and business development activities. Prior to Corel, Thornton served as Senior Vice President Sales for Sage Software where he drove new Small Business Division sales initiatives in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific regions via direct and indirect sales channels.