Ge Buys Minority Holding In Identity Pass

Along with its investment, GE has also agreed to provide its Lean Six Sigma process improvement capabilities to Verified ID’s Clear lanes, to help make screening more efficient and convenient. Verified ID’s Registered Traveler is part of a recently announced Department of Homeland Security (DHS) vision for developing new solutions that ensure the best use of new technologies and more efficient processes to improve security and facilitate travel and trade. The Registered Traveler program is intended to accelerate the screening process at participating airports for passengers who voluntarily choose to enroll. The TSA announced last November that by June 2006 private service providers will be allowed to roll out programs at airports around the country similar to the private sector program begun by Verified ID at the Orlando International Airport in July, 2005. Verified ID created Clear in the voluntary identity credentialing industry. Clear allows the shifting of limited airport security resources away from lower-risk travelers. It is based on the risk-management premise that someone who is pre-screened is less likely to be a threat than someone who isn’t. The Clear service at Orlando International Airport, which now has more than 15,000 members, is the only Registered Traveler program operating in the United States. By participating in the Registered Traveler program, Clear members spend less time in security lines. As further services roll out at airports across the country, the completely interoperable Clear system will allow members to use Registered Traveler lanes at any airport in the United States. GE’s vision for aviation security includes the EntryScan, Itemiser FX and ShoeScanner, as well as the SafeView Scout millimeter wave portal. “GE is committed to leading improvements in aviation security, while helping to drive down costs and make the passenger experience more pleasant; and these goals are perfectly aligned with the Registered Traveler program and Verified ID’s Clear lanes,” said A. Louis Parker, president and CEO, GE Security. “We see Registered Traveler as a major new opportunity for an industry that we intend to lead, and we think this investment – in the entrepreneurial company that has created the first and only working private sector program – will allow GE to help bring practical real-world security solutions to the aviation checkpoint.” “GE is among America’s most respected companies, and the fact that they have chosen to work with us in applying their legendary process flow expertise to the bottleneck that frustrates so many travelers is enormously important,” said Verified Identity Pass founder and CEO, Steven Brill. “The TSA has now made it clear that service providers can offer improvements at Registered Traveler lanes in return for offering program members an expedited security process.” Brill continued, “That has always been part of our plan, and now we have the partners who can help us do that. With GE joining Lockheed Martin – our systems integrator and another equity investor – we have the resources and the best team imaginable to achieve the national rollout of a program with world class security and demonstrable benefits for our members.”