We are happy to welcome Joakim Nydemark to Precise, as our new EVP and CCO Algo. We caught up with Joakim to find out a little more about him.
Welcome to the Precise family! Tell us about yourself, your role and what excites you about joining Precise at this time?
I have for more than 20 years worked in the mobile phone industry with some extra attention to wearables like AR/VR devices during the last 8 years. I have always been attracted to sales and operational roles in tech companies, since I love business and to see when cool technologies make a difference for customers and end user products. Some projects that I am extra proud to have been part of closing, are the design of the user interface of the world’s first Android phone, Google G1, development of the first Spotify app on Android and integrating gesture interaction in one of Lenovo’s most popular tablets sold world-wide.
Before joining Precise I was 10 years at Crunchfish AB, a provider of algorithms for camera-based hand tracking solutions targeting AR/VR devices and the automotive industry. Also, TAT, Obigo and Teleca are companies that I have had the pleasure to serve at in executive roles including engagements in international sales and operations.
My role at Precise is to be responsible for the biometric algorithm business – Algo – and work closely with our CEO on company related matters in general. There is a strong development team in Algo and great local expertise in both Asia and USA that I am eager to get to work closely with.
I believe my long experience from business operations and sales of software technologies on geographical markets like China, Korea, Taiwan and USA, will contribute to Precise’s business and growth strategy and I am delighted to be part of the team.
You joined Precise just a few weeks ago, what are your first impressions of the company?
It has been a great start and a very warm welcoming from the Precise team. It has also been a hectic start where I – after just 3 days at the office and a few days of strategy session with the management team – headed off to Taiwan for meetings with customers and Egis Tech who is one of our main owners and important sensor partner. It was a full week of meetings and interesting discussions regarding ongoing business as well as exploring new opportunities in strategic target areas. I also got the chance to meet with important executives at Egis Tech and several of their subsidiaries.
What will you be focusing on at Precise in your new role over the coming quarter?
It has been great to immediately get my feet wet by travelling to Taiwan the second week at work. Patrick (CEO) and I have also already a second roadshow planned ongoing where we meet customers in China and Korea during 2 weeks in early July.
Discussions with customers, prospects and potential partners enable us to quickly move forward in our growth strategy, why these meetings are very important to have as early as possible.
What do you feel the biggest challenge/challenges will be in your role?
Precise has a world leading technology and unique expertise in the biometric space that gives us a great position for growth. With many years of experience in computer vision and deep learning we also have the ability to enter other interesting verticals and product segments and that is what we are exploring as part of our strategy. I think the main challenges are the macro-economic situation and that many markets and industries are facing.
However, I believe that the need for security and authentication solutions has never been bigger and by making the right decisions about new customer verticals and product offerings I am confident Precise has a bright future.
Where do you see the biggest area of growth for Precise in the coming months and years?
The mobile phone industry and consumer electronics will continue to be of interest and verticals like door locks have potential since it is still in an early phase looking at the total potential market.
I believe that the magnitude of new electric vehicles and the huge number of sensors we see in new cars open many new opportunities for Precise, so the automotive vertical is definitely of interest. We also see fast development for a variety of sensors including *DVS, *ToF and interesting models of *rgb cameras targeting new use cases. These new sensors require algorithms for authentication, detection, or classification of objects, and that is where Precise excels. I also see great potential in the deep learning area, where we have long experience from designing commercialized systems that can be applied in many new areas.
Finally, what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I like to play everything that involves a ball and at top of the list are tennis and padel. A friend of mine has a beautiful sailing boat and weekly match races during the summer is also something I enjoy a lot. I have a wonderful family – wife and 3 children – and spending time with them and exploring the world together by traveling has always been top priority.
*Dynamic Vision Sensor – (event camera) bio-inspired vision sensors that output pixel-level brightness changes instead of standard intensity frames
*Time-of-Flight – a sensor that uses Time-of-Flight to measure depth and distance
*Red, Green & Blue – refers to the color model in which the red, green, and blue primary colors of light are added to create different colors that we perceive.