Cross Match Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of
high-quality interoperable biometric identity applications and
solutions, announced today that its long-time Chairman, Theodore M.
Johnson, has informed its Board of Directors that he will be retiring
and stepping down as Chairman on August 1, 2006. Until August 2005,
Mr. Johnson also had served as Cross Match's President and Chief
Executive Officer. Mr. Johnson joined Cross Match in 1997 and has
guided it to its current position as a leader in the biometrics
industry with the largest offering of finger, palm and full hand
scanning devices and related software and systems.
Under Mr. Johnson's guidance, Cross Match has grown from a
developer of livescan fingerprint technology with 17 employees in 1997
to an international multi-modal biometrics identity management company
with almost 300 employees presently. The company has locations in Palm
Beach Gardens, Florida; Jena and Bochum, Germany; and Arlington,
Virginia. In a letter to shareholders of this privately held company,
James W. Ziglar, President and Chief Executive Officer praised Mr.
Johnson's contributions to Cross Match noting that, "while all of us
at Cross Match will miss Ted's guiding hand, he remains a significant
investor in Cross Match and a good friend. It would be difficult, if
not impossible, to list all of Ted's contributions to Cross Match over
the nine years that he has been a leader of the Company. Suffice it to
say, that Cross Match probably would not exist today if it were not
for Ted Johnson. We all owe him a debt of gratitude."
In addition to his unflagging historical fund raising efforts, Mr.
Johnson negotiated Cross Match's 2005 acquisition of Smiths Heimann
Biometrics GmbH producing one of the largest biometric companies
worldwide with customers in over 50 countries. Mr. Johnson also
brought in a new management team in 2005 to manage the integration and
steward the company's growth into a premiere global biometrics
provider. Mr. Johnson noted that, "I am very comfortable that Cross
Match is in good hands with Jim Ziglar, Mark Slaven, Will Smith and
others on the management team that I put together. I am confident that
they will take Cross Match to the next level and beyond. I am now
anxious to move on to my next challenge."
Mr. Johnson will be named as Chairman Emeritus of Cross Match
effective August 1, 2006. He further will remain Chairman of the
Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Authorizer
Technologies, Inc. A former Cross Match subsidiary recently spun-off
to stockholders, Authorizer Technologies is the holder of a number of
highly innovative patents and is developing a biometric fingerprint
imaging device based on ceramic piezo-electric ultrasound technology.
Mr. Johnson is eager to replicate his successes at Cross Match and
nurture Authorizer Technologies as it matures into another biometrics
industry leader.
About Cross Match Technologies
Cross Match Technologies, Inc. is a leading global provider of
high-quality interoperable biometric identity applications and
solutions. The company's offerings consist of a range of products,
which are used to capture and process the unique physiological
characteristics of individuals to establish and verify their identity,
such as fingerprint and palm scan devices, document readers and access
control systems, proprietary enterprise and application software, and
services. Cross Match's products are used to conduct criminal
bookings, perform background checks for job applicants, verify
identities at borders and other checkpoints, register citizens for
driver's license and national identification programs, prevent
identity fraud in large-scale government and civil identification
programs, and control access to office buildings, government
facilities and other secure areas. Serving a broad range of vertical
markets including national and US federal government, state and local
government, law enforcement, transportation, financial services,
education, healthcare and commercial, Cross Match has more than 5,000
customers worldwide, with application and solution installations in
more than 50 countries.
More information on Cross Match can be accessed via the company
website at http://www.crossmatch.com.
