Inside Secure, a leader in semiconductor solutions for secure transactions and digital identity, today announces the appointment of Pierre Garnier as executive vice president of the NFC and secure payment division and member of the management board, effective as of August 1, 2012.
Mr. Garnier replaces Charles Walton who will be leaving the company later in August to become chief executive officer of Canadian company SecureKey, a partner of INSIDE Secure in the NFC and secure transactions industry.
Mr. Garnier's mission will be to continue driving the NFC business of INSIDE Secure as the market develops, leveraging the company's disruptive innovations such as "NFC booster" on a SIM card, as well as the strong intellectual property assets of the company. Additionally, he will supervise the introduction of a new range of secure payment semiconductor platforms for the future U.S. EMV market.
Prior to joining INSIDE Secure, Mr. Garnier was vice president and general manager at Texas Instruments (TI), where he was in charge of the worldwide baseband business and worldwide wireless strategic programs. At TI, he also managed equity investment and acquisition activities within the wireless ecosystem. Prior to TI, he was chairman and CEO of Everbee Networks, a company developing systems-on-chips for personal internet security devices. Before that, Mr. Garnier was general manager of the Alcatel Microelectronics broadband access business, which he founded and turned into a world-leading ADSL chipset maker before it was acquired by STMicroelectronics in 2002.
A French national, Mr. Garnier graduated from Supelec engineering school and holds a postgraduate degree in solid-state physics.
Charles Walton will continue to be closely associated with INSIDE Secure as he will become a member of the advisory board.
Commenting on this appointment, Remy de Tonnac, chief executive officer of INSIDE Secure, said: "We are delighted to welcome Pierre to this key position within the company and are convinced that his experience and impressive track-record will be key assets for our company. I would also like to thank Charlie for his exceptional contribution to the development and success of INSIDE Secure over the last seven years and I am very happy to have him join our advisory board so that he can keep contributing to INSIDE Secure in a new way."