Speaking
Founder and CEO, Global e·dentity™ — the former US diplomat who proved a point to a smartphone executive by unlocking their phone with a fingerprint lifted from a cup, then built a biometric that cannot be lifted at all.
Three earned doctorates — Computer Science, Psychology and Sociology — plus an MBA in business and development economics. The combination is the point: identity is a technical problem and a human one.
Former US diplomat. US Navy veteran. Deputy Commercial Officer, US Embassy Kabul. Decision-maker for the US Department of Defense and Department of State.
More than 25 years building AI-driven biometric software for wearables, embedded systems, smart glasses and AR/VR — 15 of those years in leadership roles. Named inventor on all seven of Global e·dentity’s issued US patents.
Selected appearances
A TED stage, a long-form tech podcast, and national press going back to 2007. He does not need media training.
TEDxNorwichED · July 2019
In Our Hands: The Future of proactive health is only a heartbeat away
Biometrics as early warning — the case for reading health from the inside of the body.
Robert Scoble · May 2026
A wide-ranging conversation on vascular biometrics
One correction to that post. Global e·dentity holds a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with DHS and TSA. That is joint research. TSA has not deployed, purchased or endorsed the technology, and we do not claim otherwise.
Education
Computer science built the system. Psychology and sociology explain why people defeat it. That is an unusual combination on a security podcast, and it is why the conversation goes somewhere.
For show notes
One line
Dr. Robert Adams is the former US diplomat who proved a point to a smartphone executive by unlocking their phone with a fingerprint lifted from a cup — then built a biometric that cannot be lifted at all.
50 words
Dr. Robert Adams is Founder and CEO of Global e·dentity, whose Universal ID™ platform authenticates people by internal vascular structure rather than fingerprints or face. A former US diplomat, he holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Georgia and is named inventor on all seven of the company's issued US patents.
100 words
Dr. Robert Adams is Founder and CEO of Global e·dentity, the company behind Universal ID™ — a multimodal biometric platform that authenticates people by the vein and bone structure beneath their skin, rather than by fingerprints or faces that can be lifted and copied. A Navy veteran and former US diplomat, he served at the US Embassy in Kabul, where credential fraud exposed the limits of external biometrics. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Georgia and is named inventor on all seven of the company's issued US patents. Global e·dentity holds a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with DHS and TSA.
Topics
01
The external-biometric problem, told through a lifted fingerprint, a 3D facial copy, and an unlocked phone.
02
What vascular biometrics actually measure, why they cannot be lifted from a surface or scraped from a photograph, and what deploying them actually involves.
03
What a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement is, how a small company reaches one, and what it does and does not mean.
04
Non-invasive internal imaging applied to clinical screening — the subject of his TEDxNorwichED talk, “In Our Hands: The Future of proactive health is only a heartbeat away”.
05
Digital identity as a route to education, healthcare and civil protection for people who currently have no papers.
Recognition
TEDx NorwichED
“In Our Hands: The Future of proactive health is only a heartbeat away” — the case for reading health from inside the body.
Red Herring Top 100
Most notable innovative and industry-disrupting private company of 2019.
The Tech Tribune
Named among the year's leading technology startups.
Booking
Email info@globaledentity.com with your show name, format, audience and proposed dates. A print-resolution headshot is available on request.
Read the deployment briefing