Jim Watts Email Address

Senior Information Technology Exec, Certified Information Systems Security Professional, Certified Ethical Hacker, Fix Information Technology Guy, Tinkerer

IDology, Inc. provides real-time technology solutions that verify the identity and age of consumers not present to drive revenue, decrease costs, meet compliance regulations and prevent fraud. IDology is the only provider to offer a self-service model that allows businesses to control the identity verification process of their customers on-demand, without requiring outside assistance or internal IT resources. Founded in 2003, IDology is based in Atlanta, Georgia with research and development operations located throughout the United States.

I am a programmer. After a stint in the US Air Force, where I learned my trade and completed myBachelor’s degree, I spent some time as a consultant with CSC. The coolestgig I had at CSC was building theater-level war games at the Air Force Wargaming Institute. Thinkingthat I needed some more general business knowledge, I earned my MBA while working at CSC. Fromthere, I moved on to Siemens where I led a team of programmers building a sales force automation tool. While at Siemens, I was approached by a former employee about a senior architect job at a 'dot com'. Back, then 'dot coms' were all the rage, so I couldn’t resist. After a year at that company I became the head of the IT department. That company was acquired by one company and then another, etc, until it finally came to be part of LexisNexis. Since we were engaged in e-commerce, wefound ourselves having to be compliant with this new (at the time) standard called PCI. And since all ofmy folks were otherwise engaged in higher priority work, I decided to take on the PCI compliance tasks.I had infosec responsibilities at various points in my career with the Air Force and CSC, but I realized my knowledge was limited. To correct that, I began studying information security, eventually earning a CISSP and, of late, a CEH. Seeing the need for a more common-sense, business-friendly approach to security, I started my own consulting company a few years ago. It wasn’t long before I got an engagement that ultimately led to me being hired as the head of the IT department at IDology. All IT functions at IDology roll up under me, but my current focus areas are data center operations and security. I also somehow find the time to serve on the board of directors for two non-profits. I’m the treasurer for both. That MBA came in handy after all.