Veteran tech executive Mike Barrett has been named CEO of Tigard startup Cozera, replacing founder Abrar Ahmed who is moving into the president position.
Cozera is in the identity authentication business. Its flagship product ID-go is like TSA Pre-Check for verifying your identity with a bank or credit union. Participating financial institutions have customers register with ID-go using biometric data already collected by smartphones for identity use. When a customer contacts an institution their identity can be verified using ID-go.
Barrett was brought in to further grow the company in its existing financial space and take the startup into new verticals including health care. The company already works with credit unions such as Advantis Credit Union and Unitus Community Credit Union.
Barrett is coming out of retirement for this role. He was most recently CEO of Unosquare, a company he founded in 2009, that provides agile software teams to customers. That company continues to be one of the region’s largest private companies.
“Mike has a successful track record leading fast growing technology companies. As a founder and past CEO of Unosquare, he helped lead that company from a few local employees to nearly 1,000 employees in five countries,” said Ahmed in a written statement. “We will continue to build out a high functioning executive team to help us expand into new markets and increase the value of the technology for our customers.”
Barrett is an active tech investor and a charter member of the group TiE Oregon. Cozera is one of his investments.
“My wife, Donna, and I were early investors in Cozera and we fully believe in the company’s ability to stop account take over fraud for credit unions, banks and fintechs,” said Barrett in a written statement. “I also see this technology solving real fraud problems within healthcare and the mortgage industry, among others.”
