In this new role, he will be leading three key areas: managing and expanding strategic partnerships and alliances; expanding PassMark's international business; and spearheading PassMark's deployment of voice authentication solutions.

As the FDIC looks for guidance and standards on voice biometrics and voice authentication, Scheel, a veteran in the enterprise software and systems industry with extensive international expertise, will enable PassMark to take a leadership role in driving strong authentication into the telephone channel.

Prior to joining PassMark, Scheel served as president and CEO of Vocent, a leader in voice-based security solutions for call centers in banking and other sectors. PassMark Security acquired Vocent in 2005.

Before that Scheel was vice president and general manager for CRM Products at Siebel Systems, Inc., where he directed product management and marketing for Siebel's core sales, service, call center, help desk, customer order management and partner relationship management product lines. At Siebel he also held roles as vice president and general manager of alliances, and vice president and general manager of sales and mobile products.

Scheel has in-depth knowledge of the European and Asian markets.

"PassMark is already benefiting from Jeff's extremely strong international management and partner relationship experience," said Lin Johnstone, PassMark's CEO, whose own appointment was announced January 17, 2006. "Jeff will be a strong asset to help PassMark win business globally and set standards for secure voice authentication as PassMark expands into the voice channel."

"I am very excited to be joining PassMark. We are bringing together talented, experienced managers, we are building successful customer relationships with market leaders and we have an enormous opportunity ahead of us," said Scheel.

Scheel earned a bachelor of arts with honors from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.