Mark Cohn

Biography

Mark Cohn is vice president, Integrated Security Programs, with responsibility for a wide range of activities from vision and architecture of cross-enterprise security initiatives to solution engineering for major programs.  He is currently acting as technical services director for border security and critical infrastructure where he manages SBInet mission system engineering and product development and leads a global team of experts in the application of information technology to physical security and surveillance systems, personal identification and credentialing, biometrics, transportation and international border security.  He is located in Reston, Va.

Prior to his current assignment, Mark served as vice president and chief architect for Unisys Global Public Sector.  In this role, he was responsible for technical leadership on major public sector engagements in defense and domestic security, direction of R&D and global solution visibility centers, and he was the initiator and visionary behind Unisys enterprise security initiatives that became the centerpiece of the corporate rebranding program.

Since joining Unisys in 1985, Mark has served successfully in a broad range of engineering and management positions. He was technical advisor and executive of interest for Unisys with the DoD Counterintelligence Field Activity, program manager for the Transportation Security Administration Registered Traveler pilot program and principal architect for the Department of Homeland Security US-VISIT Exit system.  Prior to that, he managed the transition to Unisys of IT Production Support at the Executive Office of the President and led the design of the technical solution for the TSA Information Technology Managed Services contract, as well as several interagency law enforcement information sharing systems.

In 2001, Mark was chief architect for modernizing Unisys health care solutions to comply with HIPAA regulations.  From 1997 through 2000, he was general manager of the architecture and software development practice of Federal Systems, where he directed Unisys e-government initiatives and managed a $25 million per year portfolio of programs from sales through service delivery at the Departments of Education, HHS, HUD, and Transportation and at the FAA, Military Health Service, National Guard Bureau and GSA Public Buildings Service. 

Mark is an expert in the design and implementation of trustworthy, highly available distributed systems.  He began his career at Unisys as a senior systems programmer on fault-tolerant systems used for aviation infrastructure management and was the principal designer and chief engineer for nationwide critical command and control capabilities essential to air traffic control that have proven to be among the most reliable systems ever put into operation.

Areas of Expertise

• Defense and domestic security
• Identity management and biometrics, integrated surveillance/security solutions

Education

• Bachelor of arts degree in behavioral and social sciences from the University of Maryland
• M.S.T.M. degree in management information systems from American University