Raj
Nanavati
Mr. Raj Nanavati is a Partner at International
Biometric Group, a consulting firm he co-founded in 1996 to help
companies evaluate, design and implement biometric solutions. Mr. Nanavati
lectures extensively on the technical, business, and policy issues
associated with using biometrics in the financial, transportation,
government, and health care industries. He is co-author of the book
“Biometrics: Identity Verification in a Networked World.” Mr. Nanavati
is quoted extensively in the media, including Time Magazine, New
York Times, Forbes, and National Public Radio, and has
submitted testimony on biometrics to Congress. Mr. Nanavati holds an
undergraduate degree in biology from Tufts University and a law degree
from Tulane University. He is admitted to practice law in New York State
and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Howard
Safir
Mr. Howard Safir is Chairman and CEO of SafirRosetti, Omnicom Group Inc.,
which serves the security and investigation needs of national and
international clients. He also serves as Consultant to the Chair of
ChoicePoint, a leading provider of credential verification and
identification services.
Commissioner Safir was appointed 39th Police Commissioner of
the City of New York by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani on April 15, 1996.
In four years as Police Commissioner, he achieved a 38 percent
reduction in major crime and reduced homicides by 44 percent, bringing the
total number of murders in New York to 667, the lowest level in three
decades. Commissioner Safir
has also been the country’s leading voice in calling for the expansion
of DNA use in policing. He
developed and implemented Operation Condor, a creative use of personnel
resources that continues to be a centerpiece of New York Police Department
crime reduction strategy.
Commissioner Safir began his law enforcement career in 1965 as a Special
Agent assigned to the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics,
a forerunner of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
He advanced through the DEA ranks and in 1977 was appointed
Assistant Director. Commissioner
Safir also served as Chief of the Witness Security Division, U.S. Marshals
Service. In 1984, he was
named Associate Director for Operations, U.S. Marshals Service, a position
he held until his retirement from the federal government in 1990.
Commissioner Safir rejoined government service in 1994 when Mayor
Giuliani asked him to serve as New York City’s 29th Fire
Commissioner.
Commissioner Safir received his B.A. in History and Political Science from
Hofstra University in 1963. He attended Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of
Government, receiving certificates in the programs for Senior Managers in
Government in 1988 and for National and International Security in 1989.
He is a Member of the executive committee of the International
Association of Chiefs of Police and has served as a delegate to INTERPOL,
the National Drug Policy Board and the El Paso Intelligence Center
Advisory Board. Throughout
his career, Commissioner Safir has been recognized frequently for his
outstanding service. In 1996,
he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
He was twice awarded the Presidential Meritorious Executive Award.
Additionally, he received the U.S. Marshals Service Meritorious
Service Award and the Attorney General’s Achievement Award, in addition
to many other citations and awards.
Dr. John K. Schneider
Dr. John K. Schneider is President and Chief Technology Officer of Ultra-Scan
Corporation of Amherst, New York, and a Professor of Electrical
Engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. Schneider
has more than 20 years experience in the design, manufacture and sale of
high performance, fault-tolerant systems, including instrumentation
currently operating in the Life Science Laboratory Equipment section of
NASA’s space shuttle.
Dr., Schneider spent seven years on the Calspan Corporation project team
that worked with the FBI and which was responsible for pioneering the
concept of Automatic Fingerprint Identification Systems and livescan
fingerprint imaging based on Frustrated Total Internal Reflection
Spectroscopy. Calspan installed the FBI’s first AFIS system.
Dr. Schneider founded Ultra-Scan Corporation after leaving Calspan.
Ultra-Scan pioneered the use of ultrasound for livescan fingerprint
readers. Dr. Schneider holds seven patents pertaining to this technology.
Dr. Schneider is engaged in the development of applications for
biometric identification systems, as well as research and development with
the U.S. Army and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to advance the
state of the art in biometric identification technology.
Kimberly K. Smith
Ms. Kimberly K. Smith is Unit Chief of the Criminal Information and
Transition Unit, Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division, FBI.
In this capacity, Ms. Smith oversees the coordination of local,
state, and Federal law enforcement and criminal justice agencies'
connection and transition to CJIS technologies and programs, such as the
National Crime Information Center (NCIC), the Integrated Automated
Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), the Compact Council, the
Interstate Identification Index (III), and the National Fingerprint File (NFF).
Ms. Smith was instrumental in developing and implementing extensive
security measures as a portion of a major upgrade to the Department of
Justice’s Justice Telecommunication System, which provides NCIC access
to departmental components, such as the U.S. Marshals Service, Federal
Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Attorneys Office and the Immigration and
Naturalization Service.
Ms. Smith serves as the Designated Federal Employee for the CJIS Advisory
Policy Board’s Identification Services Subcommittee, as well as the FBI
representative to the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS),
Technical and Operational Committee. Ms. Ms. Smith joined in the FBI in
1980.
Barry Steinhardt
Mr. Barry Steinhardt served as Associate Director of the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for the past 10 years. He was recently
named as inaugural Director of the ACLU's Program on Technology and
Liberty. Mr. Steinhardt was a co-founder of the Global Internet Liberty
Campaign (GILC), the world's first international coalition of Non-
Governmental Organizations concerned with the rights of Internet users to
privacy and free expression. He is a member of the Advisory Committee to
the U.S. Census and the Blue Ribbon Panel on Genetics of the National
Conference of State Legislatures. Mr. Steinhardt was a member of the US
delegation to the recent G-8 Government and Private Sector Tokyo
conference on Cyber Crime.
Mr. Steinhardt has spoken and written widely on privacy and information
technology issues to audiences ranging from the National Conference of
State Legislatures, to the National Commission on the Future of DNA
Evidence, to the Hoover Institute, to the UNESCO Conference on
Intellectual Property. At the invitation of members of the Japanese
Parliament, Mr. Steinhardt gave a series of lectures in Japan on
electronic surveillance in the information age.
He has written on privacy issues and free expression issues in a variety
of periodicals ranging from USA Today to the Employment Testing Law and
Policy Reporter, to the Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and
Entertainment Law Journal.
Mr. Steinhardt is a frequent guest on news and talk programs and has
appeared on such programs as the Today Show, CNN Crossfire, CBS Face the
Nation and Morning News, and The Donahue Shows. In 1998,Mr. Steinhardt
took a leave of absence from the ACLU to serve as President of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation. As Associate Director, Mr. Steinhardt was
responsible for providing structural and managerial assistance to ACLU's
51 affiliates and oversaw the ACLU's offices in Puerto Rico, the Dakotas
and Wyoming. Steinhardt previously served as Executive Director of the
Vermont and Pennsylvania Affiliates of the ACLU. Mr. Steinhardt is a 1978
graduate of the Northeastern University School of Law.