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).

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. 

Senior Director of Technology Strategy, Futurewei Technologies, Inc

Wenjing Chu

Wenjing Chu is a Senior Director of Technology Strategy at Futurewei Technologies, Inc. He leads new technology development in the future of computing, trust, and trustworthy AI.

He is a founding board member of the OpenWallet Foundation (OWF) and its Technical Advisory Council (TAC). He is also a founding board member of the Trust of IP Foundation (ToIP). In ToIP, he is a primary author of the Trust Spanning Protocol Specification (TSP) and of the Technology Architecture Specification, while serving as Co-Chair for the Trust Spanning Protocol Task Force and for the AI and Metaverse Task Force. He also previously served in leadership roles for the Linux Foundation’s Networking Foundation and the Edge Computing Foundation. Over his career, he had been an entrepreneurial and technical lead in several successful startups including Airespace, Inc. and Sentient Networks, Inc.

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.

Head of Wallet / SSI, Swisscom

Roman Zoun

Dr. Roman Zoun leads the Digital Wallet value stream at Swisscom, focusing on secure and trustworthy information exchange. He has deep expertise in Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) and data privacy, with a solid background in identity management and cybersecurity. Roman is recognized for his sharp market insights and strategic thinking.

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.