The Smart card alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use, and widespread application of smart card technology. The alliance is comprised of more than 160 members from financial, government, enterprise, transportation, mobile telecommunications, healthcare, and retail industries, working in concert with leading industry suppliers to support the implementation of smart card-based systems for secure payments, identification, access, and mobile communications.

Council officers are elected by the council's steering committee which is, in turn, elected by industry peers. As chairman, Roehr will be the voice of the council in liaison with standards boards and government entities-showing the end user benefits of smart cards in physical access control solutions and helping to write standards and government regulations to enable cost-effective implementations.

In his role at Tyco Fire & Security, Roehr is responsible for driving access control and video systems product development to meet the specific needs of government customers. He is actively involved in developing standards for the integration of biometrics and smart card technology in physical access control systems.

Previously Mr. Roehr was involved in developing, testing, and implementing a wide range of integration and consulting solutions for identity management and electronic physical security and was the technical lead for physical access control on the Transportation Works Identification Credential (TWIC) smart card identity program.

"I am honored to be appointed chairman of such a prestigious council," says Roehr "I look forward to leading the physical access council and working with such a diverse group of members that range from government end users, integration service providers, software developers and system and hardware manufacturers. This collective knowledge will advance the industry and Tyco Fire & Security is proud to help lead this progress"