DigitalPersona Leadership Team

Richard Agostinelli is responsible for developing DigitalPersona's strategic business relationships and setting the overall direction for the company. He brings to DigitalPersona over 25 years of experience in successfully setting strategic direction, driving growth and profitability and building infrastructure for multi-location global businesses, both public and private. Prior to joining DigitalPersona, he spent ten years in the ID Management industry, most recently as President of the Biometrics Division of L-1 Identity Solutions. This Division designed and deployed hardware and software solutions to capture, manage and move biometric data (iris, face and fingerprint) for the rapid and positive identification and tracking of persons of interest and comprised six businesses acquired by L-1: Identix, SecuriMetrics, ComnetiX, Retica, BioScrypt and Iridian Technologies. Prior to becoming President of L-1’s Biometrics Division, Agostinelli was Chief Financial and Operating Officer of SecuriMetrics. Agostinelli received a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Loyola University of Chicago, Summa Cum Laude, and a Master’s Degree in Management from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg School of Management.

Vance Bjorn is responsible for guiding DigitalPersona partnerships, corporate development and technical strategy. Bjorn was awarded by the Department of Defense the prestigious National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG) to pursue doctoral studies in Computer Science at MIT. Bjorn is also a recipient of the MIT Technology Review TR100, a national award for technology innovators under age 35. He holds a B.S. degree with honors in Engineering and Applied Science and an M.S. degree in Computation and Neural Systems from the California Institute of Technology.

Elaine Bliss is responsible for shaping and driving DigitalPersona’s product roadmap, marketing strategy and marketing programs to maximize future revenue. Bliss has over 20 years of relevant experience leading product management, marketing, sales and engineering teams at DataCard and Identix/L-1. Elaine also served as Deputy Commissioner and Director of the Minnesota Trade Office. She received her Masters’ Degree in International Business from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, where she has taught International Marketing in their masters program. She is also fluent in Spanish.

Jerry Cahill is responsible for finance, accounting and legal functions. Cahill has over 20 years’ experience in leading finance and operations teams in a variety of industries. Prior to joining DigitalPersona, he spent six years at L-1 Identity Solutions where he integrated the back offices of the six companies that became L-1’s Biometrics Division, streamlined the monthly close process and stood up L-1’s operation in India. Prior to that he was Controller of Integris Metals, where he integrated two predecessor companies into Integris Metals, prepared them for an IPO and was a key member of that company’s Six Sigma process improvement team, resulting in increased revenue and profitability. Jerry is a CPA and has an undergraduate degree in Accounting and Computer Science from Mankato State University.

Enrica D'Ettorre brings broad software development experience to DigitalPersona. She is responsible for the design and development of our multi-factor authentication software platform. Before joining DigitalPersona, D'Ettorre held a number of software engineering positions and was a key member of the initial software engineering team at Logitech Inc., where she worked on a number of core development projects. D'Ettorre holds a Laurea Degree magna cum laude in Computer Science from the University of Pisa, Italy and was a post-doctoral fellow at the IBM, Palo Alto Scientific Center in California.

Jeff Parker is responsible for hardware engineering, manufacturing and operations. Parker has 20 years of experience managing high-volume product development in the computer and biometrics industries. Prior to joining DigitalPersona, Parker was Vice President of Product Management at Validity Inc. responsible for sales, marketing and product management of biometric products. Parker also had a seventeen-year career at Hewlett Packard Co. holding positions in hardware engineering, program management and as a senior manager in software engineering and business development. Parker holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering degree from Florida State University.

Michael Printz is in charge of OEM, reseller and enterprise sales at DigitalPersona. Printz has over two decades of executive experience building and leading global sales organizations in the carrier, networking and storage industry. Printz was most recently VP of Sales with LongBoard, Inc., a VC-funded VoIP company focused on fixed mobile convergence for leading carriers and service providers world-wide. Prior to LongBoard, he was Sr. Director, International Sales at Gadzoox Networks successfully growing international sales to over 50% of the company's revenue base and contributing to their successful IPO in 1999. Earlier, he played a significant role in contributing to the revenue and overall valuation of ZeitNet which was acquired by Cabletron. Prior, Printz has held senior sales positions at SynOptics (now Nortel Networks) as well as Wyse Technology.