Rancho Santa Fe resident elected to ImageWare board of directors

Rancho Santa Fe resident Kristin A. Taylor was elected to the board of directors at ImageWare Systems, a software company headquartered in San Diego, on May 26.

Taylor, who has worked in tech for 25 years, was appointed CEO of the company in March.

“I feel like it’s an amazing space to be working in and to be growing,” she said of the industry.

ImageWare, founded more than 30 years ago, is known for building the first statewide digital booking platform for the United States law enforcement in 1998. Over the years, the company has grown into the largest holder of multimodal biometrics, which use different types of human characteristics as forms of identification. ImageWare is looking to expand from the government sector and make its authentication technology more widely available to people around the world.

“The way that the world is changing, and in particular remote work forces now, companies must ensure that their data is protected when people are working from their home environment, and they have to find better ways to authenticate and validate who somebody is,” Taylor said.

Taylor’s career in tech includes 14 years with Qualcomm, followed by a stint at MediaTek. She has also taken pride in establishing her place in a traditionally male-dominated field.

“I just feel that women can handle lots of moving parts,” Taylor said. “I think we’re very good at that. I think that that’s naturally one of our strengths and I’m a very collaborative person by nature.”

She mentioned Peggy Johnson, a tech executive who has worked at companies including Qualcomm and Microsoft, as one of her influences.

After relocating from New England, Taylor said she’s gone back and forth between Southern California and Northern California, where Silicon Valley is still home to many of the top tech companies.

“I’m glad that we’re still here and we plan to remain here, headquartered in San Diego,” she added.

An ImageWare news release announcing her appointment to the board of directors said that Taylor, in the short amount of time she’s been CEO so far, “has already infused the company with new energy, a stronger vision for the business and an execution plan that incorporates agility for faster execution.”

“There’s a lot of work for me to do but I’m excited that I was asked to do it,” Taylor said. “We have really big plans for how we want to build the business.”