Andre Boysen

About me

I was born/grew up in: I was born in Newmarket, ON and I grew up in Northwest Toronto.

I now live in: Victoria, BC.

I completed my training/education at:  

• Bachelor of Applied Science, Electrical Engineering, University of Ottawa
• Master’s in Business Administration, General Management, University of Western Ontario
• Bachelor of Science, Mathematics Education, University Of Maine

Other credentials:

• Canadian Private Pilot
• PADI Scuba Instructor
• Johns First Aid Instructor

What I do at work

I spend most of my time representing my company around the world in various capacities. I am often presenting at conferences or participating in global studies on how improve digital identity. I also write articles and papers. I also sit on several industry associations that have the goal to achieve consensus and collaboration on issues like privacy. We also look at how to improve online digital experiences, and reduce data breaches and fraud. Crooks spend a lot time of creating schemes to steal your personal information. They use this information to make money pretending to be you.

My career path is

I was diagnosed with autism late in adulthood. During high school, I had many struggles with fitting in to the school. This led to me quitting high school for two years. I read a lot during that time off and I travelled on my motorcycle. I eventually figured out what I was good at and what I wanted to learn more about.

My original plan for study at university was either robotics or physics. I had an idea at the time that robotics could be useful in communicating with people who were both deaf and blind. I spent several summers as a guide at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. I was hoping to build communication aids. That did not happen. My interest changed to software development and the Internet once I got to university.

Microsoft Windows 3.0 was launched during my second year of university. This created a wave of opportunity in software development and entrepreneurship. I created a company while at school and did computer consulting for school professors and large firms like Price Waterhouse. I earned enough to pay for my studies and graduate debt free from university.

When I graduated university, I began working in financial services in the technology. This has been where I have spent my whole career. My experience in payments and banking technology led to some key insights for my career today – how to make online identity work better with simplicity and privacy.

During my career, I have lived in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Sydney Australia, Bangkok, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

I am motivated by

We all know how terrible our experiences are when we try to sign up for a new service online. ‘Prove you are not a robot’, ‘send a selfie to prove its you’, ‘where did you go to high  school’, etc. These are all aggravating processes and questions we go through because there is so much fraud online. After we go through these processes, we often have a feeling of privacy invasion. I am passionate about making a better internet by creating the tools and mechanisms to make it simple to prove who you are. This will help you get what you need without worrying about data breaches or online surveillance capitalism.

How I affect peoples’ lives

We really are on a quest to change the world. The internet has the potential to be so much more powerful. Unfortunately, it has been held back because of a lack of trust online. You have no way to know what is real and what is fake online. The services you want to access have the same problem – is it you or is it a crook?  Online services can’t tell the difference. Our goal is build a trusted layer on the internet. We would like to get away from having so many passwords and those frustrating experiences where you need to prove you’re not a robot. How humiliating is it when you fail the internet test to prove you are a human?

Outside of work I

I am an avid traveler, for both work and my own reasons. I have a list of places I want to see. My preferred modes of adventure travel include bike, motorcycle, and by boat.

My advice to others

Become expert in more than one domain. Then look for the opportunities where problems in one area have already been solved in another.