Within any organization, the role of a CEO is of utmost significance. Being at the helm of a company implies undertaking crucial roles while wearing several hats. CEOs manage the overall operations of a company and are often responsible for aspects such as expansion, driving profitability, and many more.
“Managing a company means running a marathon at a sprint, making decisions quickly and taking risks, often alone,” asserts Lambert Sonna Momo. As the Founder and CEO of Global ID SA, Lambert undertakes several duties and is responsible for propelling the company towards success and growth. He firmly believes that founding a start-up absolutely requires an entrepreneurial spirit and a taste for freedom.
Running a company is a daily adventure with multiple challenges in all areas, and not only in one’s field of expertise. Being a professor and specialist in cybersecurity, he also manages areas such as accounting, marketing, and many more. Although he is well surrounded and leads a small team, Lambert makes the major decisions and ensures efficient delegation.
In a conversation with Mirror Review, Lambert discussed his educational as well as professional background. He also highlighted the various services and solutions provided by the company, including its future plans.
Please describe your educational background. How did you leverage your niche/specialty to create an impact in your industry?
I had the fortune of being recognized as a promising mathematician. I distinguish myself among top graduates of the University of Yaoundé, which propelled me to Switzerland to study security and cryptography at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and then at the University of Lausanne.
As a specialist in cybersecurity, I collaborate with various institutes. In particular, Idiap Research Institute, the biometrics institute covering all types of biometrics, with veins being the most recent, but also with the security and cryptography laboratory of the EPFL and the HES-SO Valais Wallis.
In 2016, I created GLOBAL ID and became the orchestrator of vein recognition technology by bringing together very different disciplines such as vein biometry, cryptography, imaging, and digital electronics.
How is GLOBAL ID making a difference within the cybersecurity domain?
GLOBAL ID provides authentication technology based on invisible biological data that can only be obtained by consent, such as finger veins in multi-view, hidden and obtainable only with the knowledge of the individual. As a result, authenticity is protected throughout life because vein networks are stable through age. With Global ID technology, organizations no longer require troubling consumers and citizens with a myriad of pseudo-authentication questions and steps, making processes faster and with much better user experience.
What exclusive niche makes you a distinct choice in the market sphere?
Owing to its multi-vein recognition technology, Global ID has no direct competitors. The patents are the property of the researchers, including myself. Our technology is available to organizations, integrators, and OEM builders to achieve quick, reliable, ultra-scalable, secure, private, and easy authentication of individual identity.
We own the patents on three aspects:
- Cryptography (data encryption and secure transmission),
- Biometry (multi-view finger vein scanning, processing, and recognition) and
- Privacy (separation of biometric data from personal data).
Please walk us through your flagship product. What makes it a revolutionary product?
With Global ID technology, we guarantee true respect for privacy. Indeed, it works on databases that are separate from those of client organizations, which means never mixing biometry and personal data. We also combined vein recognition with data encryption, which continuous evolution.
VenoScanner-F is our flagship product, which is invented by us. After several years of development, several patents to our credit and diminishing prototype sizes, we miniaturized the VenoScanner-F in 2021 with the cooperation of the Swiss Centre for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) in Neuchâtel. The VenoScanner-F allows multi-view finger-vein recognition, with greater performance than legacy scanners.
Being at the company’s helm, what strategies do you incorporate to ensure comprehensive growth and development?
I believe that tomorrow’s future is prepared today by listening to customers. In order to offer choice and match various needs of customer organizations, a new contactless VenoScanner for the entire hand is under development, using a different gesture, and with adapted technologies for protection against spoofing. The prototype is already working and we are proceeding with miniaturization, expecting completion by early 2023.
In your opinion, what makes high-performance private biometrics a keen choice for various sectors and organizations? With respect to that, how is GLOBAL ID proving beneficial for its clients?
The sectors that show a keen interest in high-performance private biometrics are those where the stakes of certainty are a priority, such as medical, high finance, and public services. Certainty eliminates the risk of errors, and therefore the resulting losses, fines, punishments, and damage to reputation.
Beyond these risks, these sectors are attracted by the productivity gain that the solution brings in terms of speed and dematerialization of signature: the gesture of presenting your finger to the VenoScanner-F is as explicit and voluntary as a handwritten signature, but much less falsifiable!
How would you define yourself beyond your CEO role? What activities do you add in your day-to-day life?
I practice a humanist vision and consider myself a humanist visionary. I observe the world, see its flaws and provide solutions accordingly. My humanism approach is also very present in my parallel activities related to Africa. Along with my brothers, I collect materials in Europe which I regularly send back to my country of origin.
We have four children, and I am involved at the municipal level and committed to good community life by providing concrete solutions to problems. Without a doubt, this is what I consider an extension of professional training benefiting my community.
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