Leadership

Mr. Alia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and has earned an MBA from Cornell University. Manny is an astute leader with deep experience and forward-looking ideas on financial/banking services, security, and Africa opportunities. Since leaving JPMorgan Chase, Mr. Alia has served as business development and management consultant in Africa and played a role in recent BIO-key contract wins through his leadership at the Technology Transfer Institute of Africa (TTIA) and Exponential Launch Partners.

At JPMorgan Chase in New York, Mr. Alia was head of wholesale in Receivable Operations in Corporate and Investment banking for the U.S. and Canada. The unit had an annual budget of $100M, over 1,000 employees, processed over 100M items and over $700B in deposits a year for Government, Healthcare, Insurance, and other Corporate clients. Manny brings a wealth of knowledge and insight on security issues and enhancing operational efficiency.

Michael W. DePasquale has been promoted to Chairman of the Board effective January 29, 2014. Mike has served as the Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the company since January 3, 2003. Moving forward Mike will serve as BIO-key’s Chaiman & CEO. He served as Co-Chief Executive Officer of the company from July 2005 to August 2006. Mr. DePasquale brings more than 27 years of executive management, sales and marketing experience to the company. Prior to joining BIO-key, Mr. DePasquale served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Prism eSolutions, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based provider of professional consulting services and online solutions for ISO-9001/14000 certification for customers in manufacturing, healthcare and government markets, since February 2001. From December 1999 through December 2000, Mr. DePasquale served as Group Vice President for WRC Media, a New York-based distributor of supplemental education products and software. From January 1996 until December 1999, Mr. DePasquale served as Senior Vice President of Jostens Learning Corp., a California-based provider of multi-media curriculum. Prior to Jostens, Mr. DePasquale held sales and marketing management positions with McGraw-Hill and Digital Equipment Corporation. Mr. DePasquale earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He serves on the Board of Directors and as Vice Chairman of the International Biometrics and Identification Industry Association. Mr. DePasquale has extensive General Management experience in the technology sector and has served on a number of non-profit as well as private company Boards.

Thomas Gilley is an entrepreneur, hands on technologist and innovator in the area of mobile technologies, digital media, internet of things and social media. Gilley gained corporate product management experience at Apple Computer, as an Engineer and R&D manager in the Advance Technology Group. Before and after Apple, Gilley founded several successful companies, including Meeting Technologies, a social computing company; FutureTel, the first MPEG video broadcast equipment provider, MPEG2, a chip company, and PicoStar, an incubator – technology investment company. While at PicoStar, Gilley was the founding CTO for Cobalt Networks which subsequently was acquired by Sun Microsystems for two billion dollars. Mr. Gilley, serves as an advisor for the New Jersey Institute of Technology, a public Research University, and InterDigital Communications, developers of wireless technologies for mobile devices and networks. Gilley also served as a strategic advisor for Compass Advisers, providing guidance for mergers, acquisitions and investments for public companies and private equity firms in the areas of security systems, enterprise software, and media, mobile and wireless. Most recently, Gilley sold his on-demand web media company to Vignette and acted as CTO throughout the transaction and through the company’s ultimate acquisition by OpenText.

Mr. Knook is a broadly skilled senior executive with over 30 years of leadership experience in Mobility and Software technology in Europe, Asia and America. He was previously Director of Internet service at Vodafone, UK, following 18 years at Microsoft, where he served as one of the company’s top 25 executives. As President of Microsoft Asia from 1997 to 2001, Mr. Knook led the company’s efforts in opening and expanding in Asian markets. As SVP of Microsoft’s Mobile Communication Business from 2001 to 2008, he transformed a struggling business and led it to 40% annual revenue growth, including the development of a new mobile platform business with sales of more than 20 million units a year.

Thomas E. Bush, III, served with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for over 33 years. Bush joined the FBI on September 8, 1975. Early in his FBI career, he worked in the Identification Division (now the Criminal Justice Information Services Division) and Information Resources Division. During his 33 year career as a Special Agent he rose through the ranks of the FBI ultimately becoming the Director of the CJIS division. During Bush’s tenure with the CJIS division he was responsible for the day to day operation of the largest division of the FBI, with over 2,500 employees and a budget of approximately one billion dollars. Known for providing critical services in support of the criminal justice community, two significant IT projects, Next Generation Identification and N-Dex, were awarded by CJIS with early increments delivered during his tenure. He was the recipient of many awards during his tenure, most notably a Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service in 2007.

Robert J. Michel has served as a Director of the Company since April 10, 2017. He has over 30 years of accounting and financial management experience and currently serves as the CFO of Roadway Moving, Inc., a transportation, moving and storage company located in New York City. Immediately prior to Roadway Moving, Inc., Mr. Michel served as a consultant with Feuer and Orlando, LLP, New York, NY based CPA firm. From 2009 until March, 2016, Mr. Michel was the Chief Financial Officer of Asta Funding, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASFI), a diversified financial services company operating in five reportable segments in the United States, with the consumer receivables segment also operating in South America. Mr. Michel was responsible for all financial matters and SEC reporting. From 2004 until 2009, Mr. Michel served as the Controller and the Director of Financial Reporting and Compliance for Asta Funding. Mr. Michel is a certified public accountant, earned a MBA in Taxation from St. John’s University, and a BS in Business Administration from Villanova University. We believe Mr. Michel’s qualifications to sit on the board of directors include his substantial experience in accounting and financial management for public companies which provide the Board with a deep knowledge of financial and SEC reporting and strengthen the board’s collective qualifications, skills, and experience.

Kelvin has over 30 years of experience in consumer electronics manufacturing, principally phones and PCs.

He solely founded a listed company in Hong Kong in 2010, World Wide Touch Technology (WWTT) (stock code: 1282), which generated over USD 100 million a year in revenue with profit gains. In 2015, he brought in a strategic investor who became the largest shareholder of WWTT, and the company was renamed Glory Sun Financial Group. Regardless, Kelvin continues to be one of the major investors of the company.

During the same period, Kelvin invested USD 12 million in BIO-key International, Inc and worked with Michael DePasquale (the current CEO) to list the company in NASDAQ (BKYI) in 2015, and agreed to second-round financing (USD 20 million) in 2020 to further enhance BIO-key’s Internet Security Systems. He currently acts as BoD Vice Chairman and managing director for Asia.

Kelvin is also an active investor in Asia. He is a substantial shareholder of the Asia Standard Hotel in Hong Kong (stock code: 292).