Authenti-Corp was founded in 2000 to address the emerging market for authentication technologies. Since Authenti-Corp's inception, it has served the needs of a wide variety of clients.
Authenti-Corp personnel are internationally-recognized experts in the field of personal authentication. They have given presentations around the world and have written numerous reports and documents for clients.
Valorie S. Valencia, PhD
Dr. Valorie S. Valencia is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Authenti-Corp, which provides scientific research, consulting, and evaluation services in all areas of authentication. Dr. Valencia co-founded Authenti-Corp in 2000 where her efforts have focused on development of novel biometric technologies, multi- and cross-spectral biometric data collection and matching research, aliveness testing in conjunction with biometric data collection, image quality research to improve the intrinsic performance of biometric technologies, usability research to improve operational performance of biometric technologies, longitudinal aging studies of biometric feature stability, societal issues associated with implementation of biometric systems, standards-based performance and security evaluations of biometric systems, relative strengths and weaknesses of various access control technologies, security and wear issues of contact and contactless smart cards, and novel thermal imaging devices. Dr. Valencia also serves as a Research Professor of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona.
Dr. Valencia received her PhD degree in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona in 1991 and began working in the biometrics and security arenas in 1995 at Sandia National Laboratories. She has been working with various types of multi-disciplinary systems for over 25 years in academic, commercial, and Government environments, and has managed and participated technically in scores of successful research, evaluation, and engineering projects. Past academic research areas include femtosecond spectroscopy, nonlinear materials for ultrafast optical switching, epitaxial growth of organic crystals, and organic light emitting diodes. Past engineering efforts include optical and mechanical designs of various novel components and systems.
Dr. Valencia has authored over 50 published papers (some as V. Williams), abstracts, and US Government reports as well as Chapter 8, "Biometric Liveness Testing," in the book Biometrics (Osborne McGraw Hill, New York, 2003). She is currently working on a book with co-author Jean-François Mainguet entitled "Biometric Sciences: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," which will be published in both English and French.
In addition, Dr. Valencia has given numerous presentations and seminars at international conferences and meetings, chaired sessions at several international optics-related conferences, served as Chair of the Sandia National Laboratories Employee Council, participated in numerous US Department of Energy security panels, and served as Reviewer on National Science Foundation research grant panels. She coordinated the Biometrics Showcase at the Optical Society of America (OSA) Science Educator's Day in 2005.
Dr. Valencia serves on several international biometrics and security working groups, including the United Kingdom Home Office Biometrics Assurance Group, a body that provides independent scrutiny of all the UK Government biometric programmes. She is an active member of the US INCITS M1 Technical Committee on Biometrics and US representative to the ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC37 international biometrics standardization committee. She has served as US Head of Delegation to SC37 for Harmonized Biometrics Vocabulary and Biometric Performance Testing and Reporting and as the United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) Liaison to SC 37. Dr. Valencia currently serves as the International Biometrics Industry Association (IBIA) liaison to SC37. Dr. Valencia is a member of OSA, IBIA, and the International Association for Identification (IAI).
Dr. Valencia’s recent publications, reports, and presentations
Kathleen Gee, PhD
Dr. Kathleen Gee is a physicist and electrical engineer. She recently retired after a 30 year career at Sandia National Laboratories as a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff. For the last 18 years, she has done vulnerability assessments on a wide variety of security systems for the Department of Energy and various intelligence agencies.
A key contribution of Dr Gee's career was as principal inventor and team leader of Limited Knowledge Analysis, a cost-effective technique for determining how adversaries with specific knowledge will attempt to defeat hardware security systems. That project was awarded the Defense Programs Award of Excellence in 2003, a Department of Energy award. Dr. Gee also received the Employee Recognition Award for Individual Technical Excellence in 2005.
Dr. Gee is the co-inventor of a self-documenting methodology for analyzing circuits and systems for failures that could lead to vulnerabilities and other non-desirable outcomes. The methodology was developed for an intelligence organization, but has been used on Department of Energy projects as well.
Prior to working as a vulnerability analyst, Dr. Gee worked in telemetry system electronics design, development, and testing. She championed structured design and design for testability of hardware and software. She also led a major quality improvement effort in microelectronics.
Dr. Gee earned her Ph.D. in theoretical elementary particle physics from Cornell in 1976, and an M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford in 1982.
Stephen Price
Mr. Stephen Price brings more than 25 years of writing and editing experience to his role as Senior Editor of Authenti-Corp's written communications. He began his career as Production Editor at Plenum Publishing Corporation in New York City, where he was responsible for the content and graphics of scientific and technical books, from manuscript to finished product.
In 1985, Mr. Price became a copywriter for Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the world's premier advertising agencies. There, he created award-winning campaigns for several national and international clients including Samsung Electronics, Northwest Airlines, the Florida Department of Citrus and the National Crime Prevention Council.
In 1994, Mr. Price moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he has served as a senior copywriter and creative director for various companies in the Valley. With a BA in English from Vassar College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University, Mr. Price's gift and passion for language make Authentic-Corp's research reports and other publications the most concisely and clearly written documents in the industry. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of English at Phoenix Art Institute and two Maricopa County Community Colleges.
Leanne Walker
Ms. Leanne Walker, Authenti-Corp’s Senior Administrative Manager, manages Authenti-Corp’s live human testing efforts. She has held a variety of management and administrative positions in the retail and service sectors over the span of 16 years. She served as the Administrative Analyst for the Southwest region of a Fortune 500 company for 8 years prior to joining Authenti-Corp. Ms. Walker is also responsible for accounting at the company level, including payroll, general ledger and journal entries, financial reports using GCS Premier Software; preparing for government audits (DCAA and GSA); and ensuring company compliance with FARs and government contracting terms and regulations.
Roger Cottam
Mr. Roger Cottam, Authenti-Corp’s Senior Technical Manager, manages, designs, and develops automated computer systems for testing authentication technologies. Mr. Cottam is a senior software engineer with over 10 years of experience in developing complex software systems including significant work in hardware sensor integration. He is responsible for planning, implementing, and managing biometric systems performance tests at Authenti-Corp, where biometric data is collected using many hardware devices from hundreds of participants over several months. Mr. Cottam’s current work involves designing and implementing distributed, modular test harness architectures and elaborate user interfaces for data capture and storage, and developing data analysis and mining tools to extract relevant information from large collections of biometric data.
Kenneth R. Hessel, PhD
Dr. Kenneth Hessel is an electrical engineer by training and a physicist by inclination. His areas of expertise include electromagnetic fields, magnetics, optics, and vulnerability analysis. He is adept at designing, constructing, analyzing, and troubleshooting electronics.
As a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories, and more recently as a consultant, Dr. Hessel serves his colleagues as the "go to" person whenever greater understanding of a problem or situation is desired. His ability to quickly understand problems and identify solutions in many technical areas has been key to the success of many teams.
Dr. Hessel has spent the last 25 years as a vulnerability analyst, developing conceptual and experimental techniques which take theoretical ideas and make them practical.
Prior to becoming a vulnerability analyst, Dr. Hessel was a Manager of the Advanced Concepts Firing Set department at Sandia National Laboratories. Earlier in his Sandia career he developed advanced instrumentation techniques, working primarily in the field of lasers, optics, holography and fiber optics.
Dr. Hessel earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas, Austin, in 1969.
Douglas E. McGovern, PhD
Dr. Doug McGovern is an adjunct Authentication Technology Expert for Authenti-Corp. He "retired" from Sandia National Laboratories in 1997, having concluded his career there as Department Manager for Access Control and Physical Protection Systems. Since then he has been consulting for a number of major organizations in biometrics, Information Technology security standards, and smart card security. Work with Authenti-Corp has included biometrics testing and standards, smart card security, and development of guidance documents for system development and installation.
Dr. McGovern's previous work, in addition to biometrics and physical security, has included development of standards for use of CCTV in physical security, multiple systems developments for military and government security needs, the testing of remotely driven vehicles, and a long term on-site assignment with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna Austria. Other experience included a tour in the oil well logging industry with Gearhart Industries, Inc, and development of US Navy security systems with RCA.
Dr. McGovern earned his PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 1978. He also holds an MS Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford and an MS Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His undergraduate work included a BS Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He is the author of numerous papers on subjects including Common Criteria, financial systems risk, robotics, physical security, and others. He has one patent. Dr. McGovern is also an on-line Professor for the University of Phoenix, teaching College Mathematics.