Tern Plc (AIM: TERN), the investment company specialising in the Internet of Things (“IoT”), notes today’s announcement from to its portfolio company, Device Authority Limited (“DA”) regarding the appointment of Dr. Nicko van Someren, Founder of nCipher, to its Board as a non-executive director. This is in line with DA’s strategy to strengthen its Board to include known security experts in the US and swiftly follows last week’s appointment of Ramesh Kesanupalli as a non-executive director of DA.
Dr. van Someren is a technologist with more than two decades of experience of leading, developing and bringing disruptive security technologies to market. He co-founded two successful start-up technology companies that achieved IPO exits, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in shareholder value. Today, Nicko serves as Absolute Software’s Chief Technology Officer, where he oversees the direction and strategic vision of Absolute’s product security architecture and roadmap. Prior to his role at Absolute, Nicko has served as the Chief Technology Officer of several innovating organisations including nCipher Plc. (now a part of Entrust Datacard), Good Technologies (now a part of BlackBerry) and the Linux Foundation, as well as serving as the Chief Security Architect at Juniper Networks, Inc.
Based in Silicon Valley, Ramesh Kesanupalli brings over 30 years of Industry experience with over 15 years in cybersecurity. In 2013, Ramesh co-founded the FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance, an open industry association with a focused mission: authentication standards to help reduce the world’s over-reliance on passwords. Now recognized as an international standard, FIDO Alliance is based on his foundational patents and he continues to play a key role on the board of FIDO Alliance and its executive committee with an influencing voice on the future direction of the Alliance.
Ramesh also founded Nok Nok Labs, a FIDO Alliance-based market leader in next generation authentication for cloud, mobile and IoT applications. The company’s platform has been deployed to hundreds of millions of users through leading Mobile Network Operators, Fintech, Banking, Healthcare and IoT customers. Nok Nok is trusted by millions of users and by leading Fortune 500 enterprises every day. Nok Nok Labs’s S3 Authentication suite is recognised as the Best Mobile Authentication and Security Solution by GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards during Mobile World Congress 2019.
Tern CEO, Al Sisto, said:“We are delighted to see these appointments by DA. Both Ramesh and Nicko have decades of experience in establishing and commercialising high growth and disruptive tech security businesses, which will be invaluable to DA and its management.”
