Sal la Pietra
President, atsec
CEO, atsec U.S.
Managing Director, atsec Germany
Finance and Controlling, atsec
Salvatore La Pietra, a co-founder of atsec, holds more than 20 years of security management experience. In his current role, La Pietra is responsible for the development of business for atsec through project acquisitions, strategic management, resource allocation, recruiting, and personnel.
Prior to co-founding atsec, La Pietra was a senior consultant and information technology (IT) security chief specialist at IBM and was in charge of the IBM European Security Center of Competence in Munich, which conducted major security projects for European industries and banks. At IBM, he was responsible for the first ITSEC (Information Technology Security Evaluation Criteria) evaluation of AIX. Before joining IBM, La Pietra earned experience at Open Software Foundation (OSF) and Sun Microsystems.
La Pietra holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Torino, Italy.

Helmut Kurth
Chief Scientist, atsec
Lab Director, atsec U.S.
Helmut Kurth, a co-founder of atsec, has been active in security research and standardization in information security for more than 20 years. He is one of the leading experts on information technology (IT) security in Europe and the main author of the German IT security evaluation criteria and the associated evaluation methodology. His long experience with international IT security standards makes him the atsec expert on matters related to standards interpretation and implementation, especially on groundbreaking efforts like the evaluation of Linux operating systems against progressively more rigorous assurance levels.
Kurth speaks regularly at conferences and has published numerous papers on information security. He has been an active member of the Steering Committee of ESORICS (European Symposium on Research in Computer Security) since it was founded and has been a member of the program committees of various conferences for research in computer security including the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, the ACM Conference on Computer and Communication Security, ESORICS, and the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (Track on Computer Security).
Helmut Kurth holds a master's degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Bonn, Germany.

Staffan Persson
Managing Director, atsec Germany
Managing Director, atsec Sweden
Chief Financial Officer, atsec
Staffan Persson, a co-founder of atsec, has more than 10 years of experience in designing and evaluating security systems. He is currently responsible for commercial security consulting operations and strategic security projects in Sweden, United Kingdom, and Germany. Prior to co-founding atsec, Persson served as Managing Director of Trusted Information Systems in Germany. Because of his industry expertise, he lectures and publishes extensively on security issues.
Persson holds a degree in Physics Engineering and Computer Science from Chalmers Technical University, Sweden.

Fiona Pattinson
Director of Business Development and
Strategy, atsec U.S.
Lab Manager, atsec U.S.
Fiona Pattinson is Director of Business Development and Strategy and Laboratory Manager, as well as a principal consultant for atsec U.S. Pattinson is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and a Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP). She serves on the U.S. INCITS CS1 committee 'Cyber Security' and works on the ISO SC27 WG3 'Security Techniques' working on Common Criteria and other security standards. Pattinson's IT career began in 1984 with assembly programming, progressing through computer operations management, technical support, systems analysis, new business development,  and software development quality and information security consultant. Prior to joining atsec, Pattinson worked for Schlumberger in the U.K. and as an independent consultant in the U.S.
Pattionson earned her M.Sc. in 'Computing for Commerce and Industry' from the Open University, U.K.

David Ochel
Director of Operations, atsec U.S. 
Managing Director, atsec China
David Ochel is Director of Operations for atsec U.S., in charge of daily operations, personnel and site security.  He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). Ochel was the lead evaluator for atsec U.S.'s Common Criteria laboratory accreditation project. He actively participates as consultant or evaluator in numerous evaluation projects and provides advice on security infrastructures. He also contributes to atsec China business development as a Managing Director.
Ochel holds a degree in Applied Computer Science from the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, Germany.

Yan Liu
Managing Director atsec China
Yan Liu, a Managing Director of atsec China, has worked in IT security for more than 7 years. His areas of interest include cryptographic algorithms, protocols and systems, privacy enhancing technology, and DRM technologies. He has had practical experiences in design, implementation and evaluation of security systems applications, and in how to choose effective techniques and standards to address security issues, especially those in banks. He has authored books and articles on information security management system in China.
Liu holds a master's degree in Information Security Technology from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Netherlands.