Wednesday, August 17, 2011

L-1 Identity becomes MorphoTrust USA, taps Eckel as CEO

By Greg Walsh, Boston Business Journal

Morpho, the security business of France-based aerospace defense security company Safran group, said today that Robert Eckel will serve as CEO of MorphoTrust USA Inc., the company that was formed in July 2011 after L-1 Identity Solutions was acquired by Safran for $1.6 billion.

MorphoTrust, now to be based in Billerica, said in a release that Eckel previously served as president of the secure credentialing division of L-1 Identity Systems, which was headquartered in Stamford, Conn., prior to the acquisition. He joined L-1 in August 2008 as part of the purchase of Oregon’s Digimarc Corp., where he served as president of Digimarc’s identity system business — Digimarc ID Systems LLC, based in Burlington — since August 2005.

Prior to joining Digimarc, he served as vice president and general manager for Raytheon Co.’s air traffic management systems. Eckel was profiled as a Mover & Innovator following his move to Digimarc in 2005.

Morpho, a high-technology company in the Safran group, is a supplier of identification, detection and e-document services with more than 54,000 employees and 2010 sales of 10.8 billion euros, which is 15.6 billion in U.S. dollars at the current conversion rate.

L-1’s business includes providing drivers license systems to various state agencies. In February of 2010, the State of New Jersey awarded the Connecticut firm a seven-year contract worth $18 million to provide a system for secure driver’s licenses.