Carl E. Abrams  IBM Research Division, Thomas J. Watson Research Center, 19 Skyline Drive, Hawthorne, New York 10532 (carl.abramsus.ibm.com). Dr. Abrams is the Financial Services Sector Business Executive for the IBM Research Division. He received a B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Connecticut, an M.S. degree in computer science from the Stevens Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. degree in computing from Pace University. Dr. Abrams began his career as a chemist for Lederle Laboratories. Between 1977 and 1992, he worked for Chase Manhattan Bank, where he held the positions of Division Executive for the Trading and Treasury department and the International Individual Bank. He was the Director of Applications Development for Swiss Bank (New York) from 1992 to 1997. In 1997, he joined PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting where he specialized in program management. Dr. Abrams assumed his current position at IBM Research in January 2003.

Juerg von Känel  IBM Research Division, Thomas J. Watson Research Center, 19 Skyline Drive, Hawthorne, New York 10532 (jvkus.ibm.com). Dr. von Känel is a senior research staff manager in the Computer Science department. He received an M.S. degree in mathematics and a Ph.D. degree in computer science, both from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich. He joined IBM Switzerland in 1984 and IBM Research in Zurich in 1986. He moved to the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in 1991. Dr. von Känel was named by Risk and Treasury Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in finance for leading the risk and compliance work at IBM Research.

Samuel Müller  IBM Research Division, IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Säumerstrasse 4, 8803 Rüschlikon, Switzerland (smlzurich.ibm.com). Mr. Müller obtained an M.S. degree in computer science and an M.A. degree in economics, both from the University of Zurich. He joined IBM Research in Zurich in 2004, where he is currently doing research in the area of risk and compliance. In parallel, he is working toward his doctorate degree as an external Ph.D. student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, where he is a member of the Information Security group. Mr. Müller's research interests include modal logics, formal methods and modeling, risk and compliance management, game theory, and economics.

Birgit Pfitzmann  IBM Research Division, IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Säumerstrasse 4, 8803 Rüschlikon, Switzerland (bpfzurich.ibm.com). Dr. Pfitzmann is a senior research staff member. She received a diploma in computer science from the University of Karlsruhe and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Hildesheim. Since joining IBM she has been responsible for research in risk and compliance, identity management, Web services security, cryptographic key management, and formal verification of cryptographic protocols. She has served on various task forces defining IBM technology and strategy in security and privacy. She is the author of more than 100 research papers in security, privacy, and cryptography. Dr. Pfitzmann is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the German Society of Computer Science, the International Association for Cryptologic Research, where she served on the Board of Directors, and a senior member of the IEEE.

Susanne Ruschka-Taylor  IBM Global Business Services, 120 Bloor Street East, Suite 104, Toronto ON M4W 1B7, Canada (sruschkaus.ibm.com). Ms. Ruschka-Taylor holds an internal executive role as partner-Americas internal controls, IBM Business Consulting Services, where she has operational responsibility for all financial, operational, and compliance internal controls for IBM Global Business Services operations in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. She was recently global leader for business risk management in IBM Global Business Services, responsible for strategy and execution. Before joining IBM as part of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting acquisition, she was a partner in the consulting group of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ms. Ruschka-Taylor is a chartered accountant and has a B.S. degree with high distinction from the University of Toronto.