Jim Bidzos

Country:	USA
LinkedIn:	[Jim Bidzos Jim Bidzos]

Jim Bidzos is the founder of Verisign, Inc. He is also the current Chief Executive Officer and President of the company. He assumed the positions on August 1, 2011 after Mark Mclaughlin, resigned on July 27. Since 2007, Bidzos has been serving the company as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Personal Background

Jim Bidzos was born in a small mountainous village in Greece in 1995. The village became a territory of rebels and Greek militia during the Greek civil after World War II. This prompted his father to move his family to the United States. Bidzos grew up in Ohio and was enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is a computer programmer.

Career History

On February 1. 1986 Bidzos joined RSA Data Security Inc., an internet identity and access management solutions provider. During that time, the company was a complete failure. According to Bidzos, the company had no products, no costumers and no revenue. He led the company in developing the RSA encryption toolkit by partnering with Iris Associates, a small company in Massachusetts writing a program called Lotus Notes for Corporation. The partnership with Iris Associates saved RSA Data Security from sinking when Lotus was developed.Bidzos was able to demonstrate the power of public key encryption and it works with personal computers effectively and its fast. He was able to close contracts to provide RSA encryption to companies such as Motorola and Novell. By 1993, approximately 100 companies were already using the RSA tool kit. In 1994, he led the company in developing cryptographic toolkits, and other security products over the years. Bidzos worked as President and CEO of RSA Data Security from 1986 to 1999 and became Vice-chairman until 2002.

In 1989, Bidzos co-founded the RSA Laboratories, a research organization. He also created the RSA Conference in 1991 and served as its Chairman until 2004.

In 1995, Mr. Bidzos established Verisign. He was the first President, CEO and Chairman of the Board until 2001. From 2001 to 2007, he served as Vice Chairman of the company. In 2008, the Board of Directors of the company appointed him as interim CEO and Chairman after the resignation of William Roper. During the same period, Bidzos also served as Director of Verisign Japan K.K until August 2010.</ref>D. James Bidzos Executive Profile-Forbes.com</ref>

Awards

• CRN Industry Hall of Fame- November 13, 2000 </ref>D. James Bidzos Executive Profile-Forbes.com</ref>
• Time Magazines Digital 50
• RSA Conference Lifetime Achievement (Information Security)- 2004

Interesting Facts

Bidzos speaks different languages including English, Greek, Macedonian, German and a little Japanese. He never gave up his Greek citizenship because the Greece doesn't allow dual citizenship. He want's to keep his membership with the European Community to be able to work and travel freely within the European countries. He believed that being a green card holder has no difference with being a naturalized American citizen.