Aware, Inc. (NASDAQ: AWRE), a leading supplier of biometrics software and services, announced that Robert A. Eckel has been appointed Chief Executive Officer and President, effective September 19, 2019. Mr. Eckel will also serve as a member of the Board of Directors of Aware.

Kevin T. Russell, Aware's current Chief Executive Officer and President, General Counsel has been named Chief Legal and Administrative Officer. Mr. Russell will continue to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of Aware.

Prior to joining Aware, Mr. Eckel served as the Chief Executive Officer and President North America for the Identity and Security business at Idemia. As CEO and President North America for Idemia, and as CEO of the Identity and Security company MorphoTrust USA, Mr. Eckel was responsible for leading and driving the integration and profitable growth of numerous acquisitions, while ensuring customer and employee engagement and success. With a portfolio of expertise in secure identity, biometrics, air traffic control, and defense systems, Mr. Eckel has played instrumental roles in successful business expansions while at Raytheon Company, Hughes Aircraft Company and Digimarc Corporation with a long history driving product commercialization and contract execution in U.S. high-tech commercial and government fields.

Brent Johnstone, Aware's Chairman of the Board said, "Over the past several years, the Aware team has done a great job expanding our industry-leading biometric technology and platforms to enable us to grow beyond our traditional government market and penetrate the commercial market with a range of robust, flexible, biometric applications and solutions. We're excited to name Bob Eckel as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Aware team to drive our leading biometric technology into the government and the commercial markets as well as explore strategic partnerships. Bob brings a wealth of direct industry experience as well as a track record of driving commercial success."

Mr. Eckel said, "I'm excited to be joining an Aware team known for its customer relationships, employee dedication and exemplary domain knowledge and passion. Together we'll continue to expand Aware's leadership position in the industry and bring effective biometric technology into people's lives. One of my passions is to build and lead companies that enable individuals to experience the life we deserve through technology. My background in secure identity solutions, biometrics technology, and complex systems will help me drive this mission for Aware."

About Aware

Aware is a leading provider of biometrics software products and development services to governments, system integrators, and solution providers globally. Our products include SDKs, software components, workstation applications, and a modular, centralized, service-oriented platform. They fulfill a broad range of functions critical to biometric authentication and search, including face, fingerprint, iris, and voice capture, sample quality assurance, data compliance, capture hardware peripheral abstraction, centralized data processing and workflow, subsystem connectivity, and biometric matching algorithms. The products apply biometrics to enable identity-centric security solutions for applications including banking and payments, border management, credentialing and access control, intelligence and defense, and law enforcement. Aware is a publicly held company (Nasdaq: AWRE) based in Bedford, Massachusetts.