Tech Veteran and Former Marine John Bagocius to Lead FaceTec’s Public Sector Partnerships

FaceTec has named John Bagocius, a former U.S. Marine with a wide-ranging career across hi-tech companies, as its new Director of Federal Sales. It is a key strategic role, in which Bagocius will spearhead FaceTec’s international public sector partnerships.

After serving with the U.S. Marine Corps in the early 1990s, Bagocius went on to work in high-profile sales and management roles with a number of companies at the tech vanguard, including Aeryon Labs, a specialist in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and FLIR Systems, a provider of sophisticated imaging systems for defense and other sensitive sectors.

He also has extensive experience in biometrics and identity technology, including a nearly 17-year term with Crossmatch, where he oversaw North American public sector sales, and more recent posts with Clearview AI and IDVerse.

He joins FaceTec at a critical time. The company recently unveiled its UR Code protocol, which enables identity credential issuers to encode biographic and biometric data into a scannable QR code, which can then be matched against the QR code holder’s face for identity verification. Adoption of the UR Code among major identity issuers such as DMVs and other government organizations could prove to be an inflection point in identity assurance.

“John joins an exceptionally talented FaceTec team,” said FaceTec CEO Kevin Alan Tussy. “He will help lead the adoption of our UR Code protocols by federal and state governments, and drive sales of our 3D Liveness and Face matching software as the globally-preferred standard in digital identity verification.”

The sentiment was echoed by Jay Meier, FaceTec’s SVP of North American Operations, who has discussed the UR Code solution in depth on the ID Talk podcast. “I’ve worked with John for quite a while during his transition to FaceTec,” he said. “John is going to make a significant contribution to our team and goals.”

While the UR Code itself is a vendor-agnostic protocol, FaceTec is betting that many of the organizations that adopt it will recognize the advanced capabilities of its 3D Liveness and biometric technology, which have been demonstrated in part through the success of a Spoof Bounty Program that offers up to $600,000 in payouts to successful red-team hacks of its system. The program has not had to pay out any bounties since 2020.

For his part, Bagocius expressed excitement about joining “an amazing team of experts, thought leaders, and true evangelists” in identity assurance.

“FaceTec’s approach to identity verification, focused on liveness-proven biometrics and binding the identity to the individual, is the most effective way to provide a person control, and safe and secure access to their identity, a necessity in today’s digital world,” he said. “I look forward to working with our industry and government partners to help solve their identity challenges.”

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December 6, 2024 – by Alex Perala