Jason Hart named Identive CEO

SANTA ANA, Calif.—Jason Hart on Sept. 3 was named director and CEO of Identive Group, a provider of secure identification solutions for building, network and information access. Hart replaces Ayman Ashour, who resigned from his executive role but remains as chairman of the board.

Hart told Security Systems News that Identive has a “broader vision for bringing together logical identity, physical identity, and visual identity” and intends to expand its cloud services and mobile access offerings. Expect to see more “cross pollination of Identive's technologies” in its new product offerings, he said. The Hirsch security and identity offerings, in particular, will be more prominent, he said.

“Identive has strong [product lines] spread across a number of technologies,” he said. “The thing that binds all of our offerings together is that at our core DNA we are a high tech security company.”

Identive wants to take a “holistic approach” and capitalize on its ability to “deliver credentials in whatever form factor … cloud- or infrastructure-based [the end user wants and can afford],” Hart said.

Hart said that Identive sees a “clear pathway to identity-as-a-service and secure authentication on mobile devices using NFC technology.”

His personal goal is to ensure that open industry standards are used and that Identive provides products and services that are “more secure than what you see from any other vendor in the space.”

Identive is investing more sales and marketing dollars as it moves more heavily into commercial markets.  “The Hirsch brand is the gold standard for high security in government,” he said. Identive has been successful in some commercial markets, but as it goes forward “with a new line [you'll see] the same quality of products, modernized and leveraged in the commercial space.”

“Natural beachheads” for the company are health care and retail, but expect to see Identive move into all commercial verticals, he said.

Most recently Hart served as Identive's EVP of identity management and cloud services. He joined Identive in 2011 when it acquired idOnDemand, a company founded by Hart.   Before that, Hart was CEO of ActivIdentity before it was acquired by HID in 2010.