Governing Board

Head of Digital Identity, Visa
Governing Board Chair, OpenWallet Foundation

Marie Austenaa

Marie Austenaa leads Digital Identity for Visa. She has worked in digital identity since 2014, when she led GSMA’s global programme on Digital Identity for mobile operators around the world and later at Signicat – one of the leading digital identity service providers in Europe. Prior to this, Marie has held leadership roles at Telenor and Vodafone to develop new digital services. Her expertise and leadership have been instrumental in shaping the digital landscape and driving innovation in the industry. Marie currently serves as the Board Chair for the Open Wallet Foundation (Linux Foundation).

Vice President Identity Solutions Product Management Cyber & Intelligence Solutions at MasterCard

Paul S. Baker

Paul Baker is focused on developing a perspective as
to how Mastercard engages with and enables reusable
identity ecosystems globally which includes working with legislators,
regulators and industry partners across the globe. He serves as a subject
matter expert in authentication and reusable identity thus helping
support bringing this new opportunity from theory into the real world.
He is responsible for ensuring that MasterCard’s products are well
positioned to help our customers meet local regulatory requirements and
has driven our Identity Solution in India based on Aadhaar and licensed
from the UIDAI.

Previously he was Global Product management of MasterCard’s
Authentication solutions including SecureCode & Identity Check and
played a key role in the developing global authentication strategy for
MasterCard Worldwide. He also represented Mastercard surrounding
PSD2 and the Regulatory Technical Standard on Strong Consumer
Authentication. Paul Baker has extensive experience in the rapidly
evolving Card Not Present (CNP) payment arena including Identity, the
security of payments and transactions.

Paul Baker joined MasterCard in June 2005. Before joining MasterCard
he spent 26 years in the banking industry with HSBC in the UK
undertaking a number of roles and key management positions. During
his time with HSBC he delivered a global Internet Payment Gateway
solution for HSBC and was instrumental in developing their products and

Global Head of Developer Relations, Google Pay and Wallet

Aleksandra (Ola) Ben Har

Ola Ben Har is the global Developer Relations Lead for Payments at Google, covering a broad set of products such as Google Wallet, Google Pay and Chrome Autofill for Payments. She brings over a decade of experience in managing developer engagement programs across multiple product areas and has been instrumental in setting the vision, developer strategy and go-to-market efforts for these products. Ola Ben Har owns all open source efforts for Payments and Wallet at Google. The open source tools built by the team are used by hundreds of thousands of developers today. 

Ola Ben Har is a member of the Governing Board at the OpenWallet Foundation (Linux Foundation)  representing Google as a relying party, Google Wallet as well as Android and Chrome. 

Certification Lead at OpenID Foundation and CTO at Authlete
Associate Sponsor Representative, OpenWallet Foundation

Joseph Heenan

Joseph Heenan has had a long term interest in the wallet space, and is an active participant in relevant working groups, including the OpenID Foundation working group (defining the OpenID for Verifiable Presentations and OpenID for Verifiable Credential Issuance), the IETF working groups, and the OIDF FAPI WG. He was also one of the judges for the recent EU Large Scale Pilot for Travel hackathon.

Joseph leads the Certification program at the OpenID Foundation which has certified over 2,000 implementations as conformant.

In addition, Joseph is Co-Chair of the Global Assured Identity Network Proof of concept community group which has 40+ participants.

The learnings gained from the GAIN POC will help inform the OWF approach to interoperability. Through the GAIN initiative, Joseph works with peer non-profits Open Identity Exchange, International Institute of Finance, Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, Secure Identity Alliance and Cloud Signature Consortium, just one example of how he works effectively with other Associate members.

More broadly Joseph has 25 years experience of mobile app development, and is a global expert in OpenBanking ecosystem deployments, which the OpenId Foundation believe are very relevant to the challenges the Open Wallet Foundation faces.

Enterprise Architect, In mission for the European Commission & TAC Chair, OpenWallet Foundation

Stavros Kounis

Stavros Kounis, an accomplished Software Engineer, boasts extensive experience in J2EE, Javascript, web, and mobile technologies, underpinned by a profound interest in digital identity and security. His notable contributions to the tech landscape include pivotal roles in developing the EU Digital Covid Certificates, where he played a vital part in enhancing global safety during unprecedented times. Stavros extends his dedication to global health by supporting the uptake of the EUDCC technology by the World Health Organization and implementing the Global Digital Health Certification Network.

Within the digital identity realm, Stavros actively participates in the EU Digital Identity Wallet initiative, working tirelessly to promote secure and accessible digital identities. His technical understanding shines through in his contributions to the EUDI Wallet Architectural Reference Framework, ensuring robust and interoperable digital solutions.

Moreover, Stavros holds the esteemed position of Vice Chair of the Technical Advisory Committee at the Open Wallet Foundation, where he collaborates on cutting-edge innovations in digital wallet technology.

Stavros remains wholeheartedly committed to shaping a safer, more connected digital world through his work in software engineering and digital security.

Managing Director, Digital Identity Lead, Accenture

Marie Wallace

What gets me up in the morning? Working in an environment that is dynamic and innovative, where I can be involved in setting both technical and business direction, exposed to the latest research technology, working with the best technologists, and actively engaged with customers, analysts and domain specialists, in order to build solutions that truly impact people’s lives, personal or professional. December, 2004

Chief Open Source Liaison Officer at Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Ren Xudong（Bill Ren）

Bill Ren holds an EMBA and Master Degree from PeKing University, and a CS Bachelor Degree from Shanghai Jiaotong University. Since Joining Huawei in 2000, Bill served as an Intelligent Network Research and Development Engineer, Product Manager and Architect of India Branch, General Manager of Business OSS, Vice President of Network OSS, Vice President of Network OSS Strategy and MKT, Vice President of Solution MKTG, etc. He has accumulated rich experience in R&D, marketing and product management.

Mr. Ren Xudong（Bill Ren) now serves as Director of Open Source & Developer Development Department and the Chief Open Source Liaison Officer of Huawei. Now he is the Board member of CNCF and OWF. He participated in the launch and building out of open source projects, such as ONAP, OPNFV, Akraino, OPEN-O, OpenHarmony and openEuler. In this role，he is fully responsible for using open source means to build industrial ecology, expand industrial space, build a healthy and harmonious industrial environment.