Averon announces that John Hjelmstad and James Kondo have joined the Averon Advisory Board. Both of these well-known tech luminaries bring impressive credentials that strengthen and underscore Averon’s mission to help the entire digital world Be Authentic.
John Hjelmstad, longtime Head of Google Identity and current Vice President of Engineering at WeWork, lists impressive accomplishments that encompass four years at Amazon, where he helped build Amazon’s first scaled third-party data ingestion and reporting infrastructure, followed by more than eleven years at Google, where his leadership roles included serving as senior engineering manager and head of Google’s developer identity initiatives across all platforms.
“Protecting digital identity has been a passion and focus of my work for more than a decade,” said Hjelmstad. “Averon’s approach is unique and provides elegant solutions to the root causes of many dilemmas plaguing our digital world today. Averon’s innovations are the perfect intersection of high usability and high security—a critical and elusive pairing necessary for a next-gen digital identity solution that’s poised to go global.”
James Kondo, former Vice President of Twitter Inc. and Chairman of Twitter Japan, brings extraordinary experience that includes Visiting Scientist at the MIT Media Lab, visiting professor at Hitotsubachi University, and co-chair of the Silicon Valley Japan Platform.
“Social media and digital platforms have gained tremendous influence on the world,” said Kondo. “With that influence comes more responsibility and at the core of that responsibility lies trust. Averon is a pioneer in re-establishing the trust that the world seeks.” Among his other achievements, Kondo played a leading role in scoping out how social media could save lives and focus rescue efforts in disasters following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Kondo is also currently a senior advisor to Geodesic Capital, helping disruptive innovations accelerate globally.
“We’re thrilled to welcome James and John to the Averon advisory board,” said Lea Tarnowski, co-founder, president and COO at Averon. “Both bring a wealth of experience in identity solutions via their work with Google, Twitter and beyond. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing James through our years of participation in World Economic Forum communities, and his stellar guidance has already made a tremendous impact. John’s passion and deep experience in digital identity are of a rare caliber and he adds a unique dimension in our movement to create a new era for digital identity.”
Hjelmstad earned his degree in computer science from Stanford University. Kondo holds degrees from Keio University and Harvard Business School, was a Yale World Fellow and was also named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
They join other extraordinarily talented Averon Advisory Board members, including:
- Emily Ward, former Vice President and Worldwide Chief Technology Counsel for eBay and PayPal, and co-founder of ChIPs, a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of women in law and technology
- Ruvan Cohen, former managing director of Citibank’s global credit card business
- Professor John M. Smith, a top cryptography and cybersecurity expert, and the Olga & Alberico Pompa Professor of Engineering, Applied Science & CIS at UPenn
- Greg Tarr, founding partner of CrossPacific Capital, founding board member and chief strategy at Glympse, with extensive experience as an angel investor
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/averon-welcomes-leading-tech-figures-john-hjelmstad-and-james-kondo-to-its-advisory-board-300627992.html
About Averon
Averon’s mission is to help the entire digital world Be Authentic. Averon is the developer of the world’s first fully automatic and ultra-secure mobile identity verification standard, which works seamlessly whether users are on WiFi or LTE. Protected by 25 patents, Averon’s conversion-increasing innovations authenticate users by leveraging real-time mobile network signaling and hardware already contained in every smartphone. Averon is trusted by the world’s leading ridesharing and transportation services, digital currencies, cryptocurrency wallets, and global telecommunications companies to provide the most elegant user experience with the highest caliber security. Averon requires no installations, zero effort by users and doesn’t rely on personally identifiable information, making it the most private security solution across the digital realm, from banking and ecommerce to fraud prevention in ticketing and bot commerce. Averon can also authenticate IoT devices, including connected locks on homes and vehicles. Live on all U.S. wireless service providers, Averon makes it easy to Be Authentic and stay effortlessly protected while connected.