Brandewie joins ActivIdentity

Robbie Brandewie has joined smart card vendor ActivIdentity as senior vice president of the company’s new Public Sector Solutions Group.

Brandewie, former director of the Defense Manpower Data Center, hopes his knowledge about government smart card programs will help the company do better business with the federal sector.

“I’m hoping I bring some knowledge and I know I bring lots of bruises and bumps that I hope we can avoid in the future in terms of how this technology is introduced,” Brandewie said.

His responsibilities will include establishing relationships with government consumers and addressing challenges in implementing agencywide smart card programs. Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 requires government agencies to begin issuing secure credentials to their employees by Oct. 27.

“Brandewie’s proven leadership capabilities and hands-on experience with some of the most significant security deployments today make him the ideal person to lead the growth of our new global Public Sector Solutions group,” said Jason Hart, chief executive officer of ActivIdentity.

Brandewie was the architect for the military’s Common Access Card credential program. ActivIdentity provided a middleware interface for the CAC’s public-key infrastructure.

One of the biggest challenges with smart cards is linking secure identification to existing systems, a problem he also ran into with the CAC program, he said.