From farmers markets to fighting fraud, Visa's cryptography expert has a diverse set of interests. Priority number one? Designing payment solutions that are both convenient and secure.
Innovation has been part of our DNA at Visa since 1958, and today it has never been stronger. Our Visa Inventors series takes a deeper look at Visa's top innovators and their genius ideas.
At the farmers market in his Sunnyvale, CA town, Kim and his wife enjoy the open air, the fresh California-grown fruits and vegetables (a novelty, he says, coming originally from Denmark) and seeing the whole mix of Silicon Valley brought together around food.
The scene is quite different from the role he plays at Visa. An expert on cryptography with a PhD in computer science (he's academically related to British computer scientist pioneer Alan Turing), Kim works on new ways to keep payment transactions Fort Knox-secure. His latest tool? Biometrics. "Biometrics is a valuable addition to security," says the director of Risk Products and Business Intelligence. "It's something that will gradually be used more and more because we can use it. We need all of the tools that we have to combat fraud and improve customer experience," he adds.
So what makes Visa a great place for innovation? "I think Visa has changed since becoming a public company. We've become much more dynamic, interested in pushing and pursuing new technology. It's become our company culture. We have a wonderful intellectual property team who educates and promotes innovation and it's great the way innovators are recognized here."