Dick Hardt

I’m the CEO and founder of Sxip Identity, to my staff I’m the bartender.

I’m a strong advocate for user privacy on the web, and have worked for the past five years on a means for a simple, secure and open identity architecture that enables individuals to create and manage their online digital identities.

[product pitch] We’re currently working on a cool user-centric app called Sxipper that is a personal identity manager for the web. Check it out at sxipper.com! [/product pitch]

In my previous life, I founded ActiveState, which grew to become the leader in dev tools for open source programming languages and where, “if you didn’t know Dick, you didn’t know Perl!” I subsequently sold ActiveState to Sophos, a European security software company, in 2003.

My work interests include board membership on the OpenID Foundation and I’m a board member of the Vancouver Enterprise Forum. Previously I was on the board of the BC Technology Industry Association, Python Software Foundation, and Ludicorp (parent company of Flickr). I also support the Major Projects Fund for the BC Technology Social Venture Partners, a charitable foundation to support groups serving children, women at risk and people living in Vancouver’s downtown eastside.

My personal interests include support for the EFF and Creative Commons. In my very limited free time you might find me at Burning Man, yoga in Vancouver’s West End, snowboarding Whistler, or playing Werewolf at a conference.