ImageWare Appoints Three Industry Leaders to Newly Established Advisory Board

SAN DIEGO, May 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ImageWare® Systems, Inc. IWSY ("ImageWare" or the "Company"), a leader in biometric identification and authentication, today announced the appointment of three individuals to its newly created strategic advisory board. Gentex Chief Technology Officer Neil Boehm, law enforcement and biometrics expert, William "Bill" Casey, and Forcepoint General Manager of User and Data Protection, Ravi Srinivasan are the first three named members of the board, with their appointments becoming effective May 3, 2021.

The Company has formed its new Advisory Board to receive guidance and assistance from leading industry experts in critical areas to help ImageWare drive revenue and form strategic direction in key growth areas. Current and future members will be selected based on their unique areas of expertise where they can provide value to the Company. The Advisory Board will meet a minimum of four times per year.

Neil Boehm currently serves as Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering at Gentex Corporation GNTX, a high technology electronics company that develops and manufactures custom electronics products for the automotive, aerospace and commercial fire protection industries. Gentex is a biometrics leader in the connected car space. Boehm is responsible for the research and product development of Gentex's current and future technologies and has been heavily involved in the development of many of its core products. Prior to his current role, Boehm served as Engineering Manager and Director of Engineering for Gentex's Global operations. Before joining Gentex over 20 years ago, Boehm spent more than seven years at Johnson Controls, where he was active in the development of various automotive products and gained extensive experience with international customers, including an expatriate assignment in Japan.

Boehm graduated summa cum laude from Michigan Technological University with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He also serves on the Board for Lakeshore Advantage, a non-profit economic development organization.

Bill Casey currently serves as VP Public Safety and Biometrics Division, for 22^nd Century Technologies Inc, a government IT services and solutions systems integrator that specializes in the defense, intelligence, civil, and healthcare markets. Before that, he served as Vice President, Strategic Opportunities at ANDE Corporation, a pioneer in Rapid DNA that has innovated the law enforcement space by providing the results of DNA collected from individuals in under two hours. He's also previously held various law enforcement related roles with several academic institutions, the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") in their biometrics laboratory as well as 28 years of service with the nation's oldest police department, Boston Police Department, where he served as patrol officer and then moved through the ranks retiring as a Deputy Superintendent. Along with his time at the FBI, Casey was Chief of Staff and Liaison for the New England Region for the First Responder Network Authority, which designed and oversaw the world's first nationwide 4G LTE wireless network dedicated to first responders. Earlier in his career, Casey also served in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Naval Reserve for 12 years.

Casey holds a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Suffolk University and a J.D. from New England Law in Boston. He has practiced law at various firms in the state of Massachusetts since 1991. Casey also served as an Administrative Law Judge and Chief Hearings Officer for the Boston Police Department for approximately five years.

Ravi Srinivasan joins the ImageWare strategic advisory board with extensive product strategy, general management and digital transformation experience in the cybersecurity market. He is currently the General Manager and VP, User and Data Protection, at Forcepoint, a leading information security ("infosec") provider that enables commercial and government organizations to proactively detect risk to data and intellectual property while safeguarding access wherever it is used. Previously, Srinivasan was among the founding product executives of the IBM Security business unit, one of the most profitable business units within IBM. He was responsible for leading product strategy, growth and global expansion, from 2006 to 2019. He has also served in key engineering leadership and executive roles in the semiconductor and technology consulting sectors, including Texas Instruments and Synopsys. Srinivasan has deep domain expertise in identity and access management, data, Cloud, and network security transformation and is a frequent speaker at infosec industry, analyst, and customer events.

He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UT Arlington, M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University, and an M.B.A. from Purdue University.

"With the creation of our new Advisory Board, we'll be leveraging the shared wisdom of several subject matter experts whose knowledge, relationships and input should provide additional strategic direction for many of our go-forward initiatives," said Company Chair, President, and CEO Kristin Taylor. "Our plan with this board is to bring on executives and senior leaders within hyper-specific areas to learn from their domain expertise; our first members represent a great initial group. Neil Boehm will be a great resource to us within emerging technologies, specifically the automotive sector, where biometrics are experiencing strong tailwinds. Additionally, Ravi Srinivasan deeply understands the enterprise security space, while Bill Casey has key contacts and insight within the state, local and federal law enforcement sectors as well as government contracting. Emerging technology, such as automotive, law enforcement and enterprise are key verticals where we'll be looking to drive more business development initiatives."

About ImageWare® Systems, Inc.
Founded in 1987, ImageWare provides defense-grade biometric identification and authentication for access to your data, products, services, or facilities. We are experts in biometric authentication and considered a preeminent patent holder of multimodal IP, having many of the most-cited patents in the industry. Our patented IWS Biometric Engine® (BE) is the most accurate and fastest biometrics matching engine in the industry, capable of our patented fusion of multiple biometrics. Part of our heritage is in law enforcement, having built the first state-wide digital booking platform for United States local law enforcement – and more than three decades of experience in the challenging government sector creating biometric smart cards and logical access for millions of individuals. We are a "biometrics first" company, leveraging unique human characteristics to provide unparalleled accuracy for identification while protecting your identity. For more information, please visit www.iwsinc.com.