OpenID Foundation Leadership
Executive Director
Gail Hodges
Counsel
Tom Smedinghoff
He is internationally recognized for his work in developing digital legal policy both in the U.S. and internationally, most notably regarding e-commerce and identity management. As a member of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), he helped to negotiate the 2022 UNCITRAL Model Law on the Use and Cross Border Recognition of Identity Management and Trust Services, the 2005 United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts, and the 2001 UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures. A longstanding leader in the American Bar Association (ABA), Tom founded and chairs its Identity Management Legal Task Force (in the ABA Business Law Section) and previously served as Co-Chair of the ABA Cybersecurity Legal Task Force and Chair of the ABA Science & Technology Law Section. Tom has authored and co-authored numerous books and articles on e-commerce, identity management, privacy, and cybersecurity topics, including serving as editor and lead contributing author of the first book on Internet law titled ONLINE LAW: THE LEGAL GUIDE TO DOING BUSINESS ON THE INTERNET (Addison Wesley, 1996).
Operations Director
Mike Leszcz
Mike Leszcz is the Operations Director at the OpenID Foundation where he is responsible for the Foundation’s operations working in close coordination with the board of directors and the Executive Director.
Technical Director
Mark Haine
Mark Haine is an engineer and entrepreneur who has focussed his career on building solutions that enable business and mitigate risk in financial services.
Through Considrd.Consulting Ltd. Mark and his team are providing strategic security consultancy to a range of clients. He has also taken on a leadership role in the OpenID Foundation as Co-Chair of the eKYC & Identity Assurance Working Group and co-author of OpenID Connect for Identity Assurance. Mark also contributes to other communities including the W3C and OpenAPI, serves as a board member of the Open Identity Exchange and is board advisor to two technology startups.
Mark was close to developments in Open Banking and has been directly involved in Open Banking UK as senior security architect, member of the standards team, and identity product owner. He has also helped a number of other organisations navigate the complexities of opening up access to their data and services via APIs. Mark holds a B.Eng. from the University of Southampton in Electronic Engineering. Mark’s goal is to help organisations succeed by influencing projects in a ways that improve outcomes for people.
Standards Specialist & Certification Director
Joseph Heenan
Joseph Heenan is an engineer & architect with a focus on OpenData ecosystems and Digital Identity.
Marketing Director
Elizabeth Garber
Elizabeth is an industry thought-leader, entrepreneur, and evangelist.
Membership Director
Paul Briault
PauI is a Cybersecurity veteran of over 30 years.
Consultant
Nick Mothershaw
Nick is a long-standing leader in the Digital Identity community.
Nick has expert knowledge of Identity and Fraud techniques, solutions, and standards across a wide variety of sectors and jurisdictions. Previously, Nick was Chief Identity Strategist at the Open Identity Exchange, providing thought leadership, guides, presentations and stakeholder influencing to drive forward the definition and adoption of Digital ID and Digital Wallets around the globe.
Nick is also CEO of Select ID, a Digital ID connections marketplace that enables financial services firms to select from a range of Digital ID providers to increase customer onboarding rates and inclusion through single commercial contracts and secure technical connections. Select ID allows end users to select which Digital ID provider best meets their needs to digitally prove their identity.
Nick was previously Director of ID and Fraud at Experian where he was responsible launch and operation of a full “Identity as a Service” solution which was the first live example of a Digital ID being seamlessly interoperable across public and private sector.
Consultant
Gareth Narinesingh
Gareth Narinesingh is a digital identity evangelist
Press and Media
Serj Hallam
Serj has nearly 25 years of experience in comms, media, and PR.
Events
Stephanie Meli
Stephanie has over 25 years of experience in marketing, communications, and events.
With over 25 years of experience in marketing, communications, and event management, Stephanie has spent the last 19 years running her own company, offering comprehensive marketing support to small and medium-sized businesses.
She has extensive experience in member management; organizing members meetings, NFPs’ annual conferences, regular board meetings, including venue management and speaker coordination, as well as general member communications.
She was the Operations & Membership manager for the Open Identity Exchange and continues to consult for another NFP membership organization in the healthcare sector on a part time basis. Previously, she has supported several local owner managed businesses in crafting and executing marketing plans, producing promotional materials, coordinating with design agencies, and handling media inquiries.
Prior to this she spent eight years at Alias Systems Ltd, where she held the role of NEMEA Marketing Manager. She developed marketing strategies, managed large-scale (+1000 attendee) events, and worked closely with strategic partners such as HP, IBM, and NVidia to maintain business growth and brand presence.
Highly motivated and hands-on, she thrives on delivering projects to tight deadlines and within budget. Whether managing accounts, coordinating membership activities, or ensuring smooth event execution, she takes pride in driving successful outcomes for clients.
Press and Media
Sophie Bennani-Taylor
Sophie is a PhD student at Oxford and a freelance research consultant.
Sophie Bennani-Taylor is a DPhil (PhD) student at the Oxford Internet Institute and a freelance research consultant. Her doctoral research examines digital identification systems used in the field of international development. Sophie’s DPhil is fully funded by the Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership and is supervised by Professors Victoria Nash and Loren Landau
Sophie has conducted freelance research with organisations including UNHCR, the European Centre for Privacy and Cybersecurity, and Harvard Berkman Klein Centre for Internet & Society. Her expertise lies at the intersection of technology and migration. Prior to returning to academia, Sophie worked as a Digital Ethics Consultant and co-founded Sopra Steria’s Digital Ethics practice. As a researcher and consultant, Sophie has worked with a range of governmental, private, and non-profit organisations to anticipate and respond to their ethical challenges when working with technology.
Certification Team
Marcus Almgren
Domingos Creado
Thomas Darimont
Thomas Darimont is a digital identity consultant with ten years of experience in consulting and open-source.
He has over 20 years of experience in the software development industry, working as a software engineer and architect across different domains, including retail, automotive, telecom, manufacturing, finance, and insurance, with a focus on flexible and secure authentication and authorization systems.
Edmund Jay
Alan Smillie
Alan Smillie is a software developer at Emobix, a software consultancy in Europe with a focus on mobile.
He has more than 30 years experience in many areas ranging from embedded systems to mobile application development.