BIG EXPERIENCE

Small firm  

SMALL FIRM

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Identity Strategy Partners (IdSP) was founded in February 2017 by two identity professionals with unprecedented subject matter expertise and credibility in delivering results that have changed the way governments around the world do business with their residents, travelers and individuals seeking to use their services. Our goal is to be client-side, helping achieve success in the numerous identity challenges that face the world today. We specialize in the the unique nexus between identity solutions and public sector challenges, and how to implement and train on those identity resources. 

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Our core sectors of expertise are strategic planning from both the private and public sector perspectives, architecture of large national identity systems, expertise on the biometric industry, macro and micro policy and operational solutioning, and border homeland security management and operational concepts. 

BIG EXPERIENCE

Founding partners Janice Kephart and Mark Crego together have nearly 40 combined years leading identity policy and technical expertise. With both having well known, credible public personas and deep knowledge of the industry and its stakeholders, IdSP is uniquely positioned to provide technical and policy guidance at an unprecedented level. Today our core team has 65 years total experience in biometrics and identity. 

Federal government experience includes Department of Homeland Security US VISIT Chief Architect and Assistant Secretary for Policy consultant, India's UIDIA Aadhaar System architecture, healthcare.gov identity resolution (that fixed the well-publicized issues), EU-VIS (Schengen Visa System) development and implementation, US Senate Judiciary Special Counsel for Immigration Reform, 9/11 Commission and its Terror Travel monograph and border recommendations.

New team members bring experience in senior program management and certified training in identity resolution at DoD (which in turn supports the DoD biometrically enabled watchlist BEWL) and senior biometric engineering across the FBI, DoD and DHS. 

Private sector leadership includes 19 Congressional testimonies, five years as non-profit national security leader, 18 years global lead for identity at a large integrator, Americas Director of BORDERPOL, founder of the formerly leading trade association, the Secure Identity & Biometrics Association, and homeland security director at a premiere biometrics company.

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Our capabilities extend to implementation, with senior biometric and watchlisting engineering expertise working across all major US government identity systems, as well as senior international identity policy and identity intelligence operations and training expertise. 

CAPABILITY STATEMENT

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For a pdf of the IdSP Capability Statement, click here.

The IdSP team is currently on its second tasking to lead the architecture and roadmap for the next generation DOD biometric enterprise, including stakeholder engagement across DoD. 

OUR SERVICES

are designed for your success

Identity Strategy Partners, LLC (IdSP) supports and engages the identity industry and relevant government stakeholders who actively seek to advance identity management and biometric solutions that promote identity protection while enabling the right access to the right identity data to those with the legal right to its access, including identity intelligence. 

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To carry out its mission, IdSP relies upon its world class experience and leadership expertise in providing customized strategic policy, technical consultation, training, marketing, and communication development programs. Our work is assured by adhering to international standards and customer requirements.

During his role as Chief Architect of the then DHS US-VISIT, Mark Crego led the interagency task force that enabled development of the 10 print fingerprint readers at all US ports of entry, the first biometric deployment at a border in the world. 

OUR WORDS

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reflect that we try to both listen and think forward

SAMSUNG INSIGHTS

"When people talk about digital identity like it is a real thing, they have to remember it is not. Thus, you can't create blockchain around a digital identity - you have nothing to ground it to without a proof of a relation back to the real world.

All digital identity is, is an online claimed identity with no way to prove it is real. Thus, digital identity is sometimes a real identity and sometimes the opposite. It is thus amped with the possibility of fraud, and both the public and private sectors are often victim. 

Thus, it is essential to establish real identity in a mobile or online environment quickly.

It is possible, and many vendors are attempting to answer the mail in creative ways, many including biometrics."

Listen here.

SMALL BUSINESS ADVOCATE

"Are our borders safer today than we were 18 years ago on the morning of 9/11? "

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"Tremendously so, yes. Think of it this way: about 400 million travelers come by land, air, and sea annually through our ports of entry. About 1 million immigrants come, and another 350 to 500,000 cross illegally between ports of entry. 

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Prior to 9/11, those 100s of millions of annual travelers had only their passport checked, and no background check at ports of entry and minimal checks for visas. Today, biometrics are taken for all travelers for both visas and at ports of entry to verify identity. That makes nearly all travel - but for illegal travel - 400 times safer than it was on 9/11."

Listen here.

C-SPAN CHANNEL

"Perhaps the explanation of how crucial concealing identity was to the 9/11 hijackers in the 9/11 Final Report recommendations was the most important analytical conclusion I came to the Commission, looking back now.

The statement that policy and technology must support 'ensuring a person is who they say they are,' seemed in itself to both create a new biometric industry while changing border security forever.

To be called upon to testify so many times before Congress, and seeing ideas become law , in a place where I had made laws, and then programs that have actually improved our national security, and other nations as well - the privilege of a lifetime."

Watch here.

OUR BIOS

show we bring the experience to answer your needs

JANICE KEPHART

CEO

Janice Kephart is a co-founder of Identity Strategy Partners (with Mark Crego). Janice is a thought leader, business development professional and entrepreneur with 18 years federal experience and sought after by industry, government, the media and Congress with a passion for solving and articulating complex identity issues around physical IDs, border security and management, aviation security. Her library of testimonies, reports, media appearances and more are here. Janice's base of experience as follows:

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• Homeland Security Director, MorphoTrak (US subsidiary of Safran Morpho) (Sept. 2015 - Oct. 2016), where created unparalleled inroads in thought leadership, strategy and execution across the entire homeland security platform for "Start-Startup" homeland security practice through a combination of prioritized goals that required development of intense, in-depth relationships with both key government representatives, system integrators and commercial partners that supported both company goals and DHS mission in an inclusive, team building manner

• Recipient of the 2015 Women in Biometrics Award, one of five women from over 50 nominated (Sept. 2015) 

• 9/11 Commission counsel responsible for many of the terrorist travel recommendations in the 9/11 Final Report and attending monograph 9/11 and Terrorist Travel monograph  

• 19 testimonies before Congress that include passport and driver license security, biometric border solutions, and visa requirements

• United Nations National Security Council invitation to speak on terrorist travel 

• Senate Judiciary Special Counsel/Counsel twice

• Founder/CEO of a leading trade organization, the Secure Identity & Biometrics Association (SIBA)

• Americas Director for international border organization BORDERPOL with attending high level conference developed and executed

• National security director at a DC think tank 

• Developed/hosted digital homeland security radio show

• 100s of appearances in international media as subject matter expert on borders, identity, and national security policy, law and technical solutions

• Advisory Board Member and Chair for IDGA Biometrics for Law Enforcement and Government, INTERPOL Global ID, and Homeland Security Summits

Janice speaks regularly at conferences, to international media, publishes articles and op-eds around the world. Her hands-on approach to legislative language development and strategy enabled her to have two laws drafted passed by unanimous consent by both the House and Senate, and signed by President Clinton, including the federal criminal identity theft statute. Media appearances in print, radio and national TV (with all major networks) are in the hundreds.

Janice attended Duke University and Villanova Law School, and practiced law in her original hometown of Philadelphia for two years prior to moving to Washington D.C. Duke University Magazine has featured Janice as one of the most influential alumni of the 1980s.

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Janice is a Recording Academy of America associate member with three entries on the Grammy ballot and collaborations with multiple Grammy winners and nominees as a spoken word vocalist and lyricist/poet. Her music site is here. She lives in the Washington D.C. region and is a single mother to three children, all of whom are (technically) emancipated. 

GRAHAM CROUCH

Vice President, Operations and Identity Intelligence

Graham Crouch is Vice President, Operations and Identity Intelligence with over 10 years of expert identity intelligence training and program management, with an additional specialty in biometric and facial recognition analysis to solve identity matching, resolution, and watchlisting problems. He joins IdSP after seven years with Integral Consulting. 
 
Graham previously worked for over 10 years on the US Army INSCOM Biometric Intelligence Program (BIP) at the National Ground Intelligence Center in Charlottesville, VA, which is the US Army’s premier identity matching and analysis program.  

Graham previously was the Deputy Program Manager as well as Theater Site Lead in Afghanistan for the program, managing teams of over 50+ biometric analysts, to include teams of facial recognition analysts, supporting national security missions. Graham also led teams of contractors providing support to managing the DoD’s Biometric Enabled Watchlist (BEWL) and has years of experience related to identifying, adjudicating, and resolving identities for watchlisting purposes.  

Graham previously served as the contract team lead for the US DoD National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) Training Team on their Identity Intelligence (I2) Analytic Support contract, teaching biometric and intelligence skills and disciplines to a wide range of customers within the US Government and internationally. The team was responsible for training customers on biometric techniques and methods and the benefits for both operations and intelligence. Within the US Government, Graham helped train customers from Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), United States Marine Corps (USMC), Navy Intelligence Exploitation Teams (IET), US Army, Department of Homeland Security’s National Target Center (DHS NTC), Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE), and the US Army.  

Internationally, Graham has trained and instructed customers from the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan, Canada, and Mexico.  Graham helped build and execute biometric training events and exercises Daring Fox 2015 and 2016, a US Army Japan (USARJ) joint biometric and identity focused exercise which taught biometric and forensic techniques to the Japanese Self Defense Forces (JSDF) alongside US military partners, Clockwork Orange 2015, 2016, and 2018, a series of joint US-Netherlands military & law enforcement biometric and forensic exercises.  

Graham also provided biometric expertise to NATO Trials Unified Vision 2014 and 2018 which were testing biometric and forensic techniques and information as applied to NATO forces problem sets. He has trained multiple country forces in a wide variety of techniques and equipment and approaches each customer uniquely. Graham’s training methodology is to strive for realistic training scenarios that train customers to accepted international standards in collection while designing training programs that show the real world impact of biometrics and forensics to customer specific mission sets.   

Graham lives in Charlottesville, VA with his wife and four children. 
 

MARK CREGO

Managing Director, Technical

Mark Crego is a co-founder of Identity Strategy Partners (with Janice Kephart) and currently IdSP's Managing Director, Technical. Mark retired from 18 years at Accenture, where he was Master Technology Architect, Partner, and the global Managing Director of Unique Identity Services, with P&L responsibility over $160 million in annual turnover and a community of practice of over 800 people.

Mark's  leadership in identity solutions includes:

• Leading Accenture’s Biometric Services supporting the Unique Identification Authority of India’s Aadhaar program, biometrically enrolling over 300 million residents of India

• Chief Architect of the DHS US-VISIT program for five years

• Developing the Identity Strategy for creating the worlds' first biometric entry system at US borders, biometrically enrolling over 190 million people

• Leading the Unique Identity Services offerings in support of the European Union (70 million EU-VIS/EU-BMS participants), United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Educational Testing Service, and several other biometric programs around the world. 

In terms of Identity Strategy consulting, Mark provided the strategic architecture for the 2010 Census, led the establishment of customer ID for the United States Postal Service, laid out the architecture strategy for DHS-FBI biometric interoperability, provided the acquisition strategy and due-diligence for three major acquisitions in the biometrics industry, and has regularly advised the European Union and Middle-Eastern Persian Gulf states on identity strategy and intelligence. 

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Prior to Accenture, Mark had progressive leadership roles in the information technology industry. In the 1980s as Vice President and CIO of ManTech International, he helped propel Deltek Systems, the leading Government contract accounting software provider, by converting the company’s products from single-user small-business, to a multi-user, multi-platform enterprise client server solution, increasing Deltek’s sales from 500K/year to between five and ten million per year in a two year period.

In 1988, Mark founded InterPort Software Corporation, a company providing five million in software and professional services to glean business rules and data structures from existing applications. His company was acquired by MicroFocus, and his technology remains part of the product Microfocus offers today, some 25 years after acquisition.

Mark was an officer of DECUS, and has been actively involved in leading several industry associations focused on databases, technology architecture, and identity. ​Mark is a frequent speaker and writer in the biometrics and identity management industry and holds several patents as inventor.

Mark conducts choral music within an interfaith community, and is the front man for a big-band jazz group. He enjoys Hindu and Chinese classical texts and history and is currently obtaining a theology masters from Gonzaga University. He lives in Washington DC with his wife Susan and in convenient distance from his five daughters and seven grandchildren.

BUDDY GUTHRIE

Senior Identity Enterprise Engineer

Buddy Guthrie is IdSP’s Senior Biometric System Engineer with over 15 years of experience in building and improving biometrically enabled watchlists as a customer, end user, architect, developer and shareholder liaison. Buddy has worked extensively on biometric systems for immigration control (DHS US-VISIT), the FBI’s system NGI CJIS, and DoD biometric and watchlist systems. 

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Buddy has specific experience in assessing and document biometric enterprise systems, migrating legacy biometric systems, developing data sharing agreements amongst agencies, leading research, evaluation, and development efforts between academia and industry to improve biometric technologies. Major areas of emphasis are wireless networks, autonomous vehicles, sensor networks, situational awareness, target tracking, and identification tactics, and biometrics and its enabling technologies.

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Buddy served the DHS US-VISIT as a technical 10 Print Specialist responsible for Data Migration analysis and design activities, subject matter expert on biometric matching and fusion concepts, and technical documentation for 10 Print matching design.

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Buddy was responsible for design and analyses of Interface Control Agreement between US-VISIT IDENT and FBI CJIS IAFIS for systems interoperability development. In addition, he analyzed effects that will be caused by system workload volumes for prospected FBI searches of US-VISIT biometric galleries and worked with modeling and simulation team to identify necessary system upgrade requirements to support the additional transaction volumes. Closely aligned with this work, Buddy also analyzed capacity concerns, including identifying expected maximum load breaking points, system bottle necks, and “To Be” system architecture flows.

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Buddy has an M.S. Software Engineering emphasis area in Biometrics and Information Assurance from West Virginia University, Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and B.S. Business Administration majoring in Management Information Systems, West Virginia University, College of Business and Economics. Buddy is both an IEEE Certified Biometrics Professional and Certified Scrum Product Owner (Scrum.org).

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Buddy is a sound engineer, snowboard instructor and co-owner of an operating farm and lives in Morgantown, West Virginia . 

OUR ADDRESS

2800 Eisenhower Ave., Suite 220
Alexandria, VA  22314
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info@identitystrategy.com
Tel (202) 750-4858

CAREERS at IdSP

If you prefer independence in smart, dynamic, mission-centric environments as an independent contractor, IdSP opportunities may be for you. 

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We are currently seeking those with a background in engineering, sciences or direct biometric fields. 

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Send us a note in the contact box below to get a conversation started.

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