Prior to joining Zwipe, Mr. Girod spent more than ten years at Mastercard, leading card and terminal testing and certification efforts. He served as Head of Labs Accreditation, served on the EMVCo Terminal Approval Working Group and was a key contributor in the Terminal Quality Management (TQM) and Card Quality Management (CQM) processes. His technical background features both senior and advisory postings with many global corporations including Gemalto and Sopra Steria.

Pierre will lead Zwipe’s certification efforts, serving as Zwipe’s primary liaison with the payment networks. He will also be responsible for other payment industry affiliated specification bodies such as EMVCo and the FIDO alliance.

Zwipe’s technology platform is currently being integrated by multiple leading card manufacturers into battery-less dual-interface biometric payment cards. Zwipe and its partners are now entering into the phase where contactless biometric payment cards can be certified based on specifications defined by the leading payment networks. Together with its partners, Zwipe plans to have such certifications completed by mid-2019.

Commenting on this latest addition to the Zwipe team, André Løvestam, CEO of Zwipe, said “over the last few months Zwipe has achieved major technical milestones in preparing our technology platform for certification and commercial deployment,” adding “certifications will continue to be a part of how we operate in the financial services market. We see this as a strategic recruitment for Zwipe as Pierre brings deep certification knowledge and experience to the Zwipe team to successfully handle such important processes.”