Mark Cornett, Senior Sales Director, shares his view from Precise’s office in Potsdam, New York, about what it’s like to work in biometrics in the USA and how the team is driving growth and success in the region.
Tell us about your role please and what a typical working day looks like.
I enjoy wearing several hats here at Precise’s US office in Potsdam, New York, including sales/business development for our fingerprint and face modality solutions, along with overall office management responsibilities. Our US office is also responsible for human subject data collections we perform on behalf of both our customers and our own internal product development. Our collection lab is quite automated and includes the ability to collect data under a variety of environmental conditions such as direct sunlight and high/low temperatures.
Given the six-hour and twelve-hour time differences with Europe and Asia respectively, our mornings here are mostly devoted to meetings involving our customers and colleagues in those regions. In the afternoon our attention shifts more to our US-based customers, many of which are located on the US’ west coast.
What is the business environment like in USA and what are your expectations for the market in 2022?
As seen across the globe, the adoption of biometrics-based solutions continues to grow here in the US, and I expect our US-based fingerprint solution partners to benefit from that trend. As a result, our human subject collection business continues to grow.
For the digital identity outlook, there are opportunities as companies navigate the transition of Covid from a pandemic to being more endemic. For example, we are focused in helping our partners balance challenges such as meeting pent-up demand for general maintenance of security systems for their customers alongside investing in new technology solutions such as face recognition access control.
What’s the most exciting innovation that you are seeing in the area of biometrics?
I believe our digital identity solution for access control (YOUNiQ Access), very much represents an exciting innovation in the use of biometrics. Its ability to increase security, enhance user convenience, and lower operating costs, is truly innovative.
Another exciting element within biometrics is the growing pervasiveness of these technologies in our daily lives. Far from just unlocking your mobile phone, the use of biometric authentication in applications like enterprise access control, automotive, payment processing, firearm security, and many others is really impressive.
Lastly, within the mobile phone segment, the adoption of large area fingerprint sensors – utilizing a third or more of total screen area – is exciting for both users and OEMs, as these large sensors will bring even greater convenience and functionality.
What do you like best about working for Precise?
Without doubt, it’s the people of Precise and the team orientation. With offices spanning the globe, I am not only fortunate to work with highly committed and knowledgeable colleagues, but I also enjoy and benefit from the exposure to a wide variety of cultural backgrounds among our colleagues and partner organizations.
What are you most proud of achieving to date in your professional career while working with Precise?
Without question it is the negotiation I undertook with Precise that led to its acquisition of NexID Biometrics, our former entity here in Potsdam. Becoming part of the Precise Biometrics ecosystem greatly expanded the opportunities available and applicable to the NexID technology (fingerprint liveness detection), which was invented and developed by Dr. Stephanie Schuckers of Clarkson University, along with several other academic colleagues. I continue to feel great pride in the synergies that have been realized since the two companies joined together.
What are your goals for the coming year?
The top goal for this year is accelerating the adoption of YOUNiQ Access in the US. With two key access management integrations now in place – Genetec and LenelS2 – we hope to not only recruit distributors of these solutions to also carry YOUNiQ, but to assist them in identifying and securing a number of larger enterprise implementations.
On the Algo side, our goal this year is to assist our US-based sensor partners in further expanding the number of mobile phone and other projects utilizing our liveness and matching solutions.
How do you like to spend your free time?
I enjoy spending time in our 90 acres of forest, meadow and wetland. Among other activities such as hunting and gardening, I use this large ‘playground’ as a way to help fight climate change by sequestering carbon in the tens of thousands of trees I have planted over the past 30+ years here. And this playground also comes in handy when entertaining any/all of our five grandchildren!
I also enjoy serving as a trustee to our regional hospital system (St. Lawrence Health), and have done so over multiple decades. I find the healthcare industry fascinating and very complex, and I take pride in strategically helping SLH improve and expand healthcare services across our region.