Chia-Lin Simmons CEO of NXT ID Inc, Most Empowering Women Leaders of 2021 Profile

Chia-Lin Simmons
CEO of NXT ID Inc


Chia-Lin Simmons CEO of NXT ID Inc, Most Empowering Women Leaders of 2021

“THE TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY EXPERT”

Chia-Lin Simmons is a technology industry executive with 26+ years of experience in pre-seed to public companies. She also has product experience, having developed new technologies and sold them to a mass market. With her unique track record managing both startups and public companies, she is ideally-suited to lead a small-cap NASDAQ company like NXT-ID to the next level.

“We are in a mission critical technology space that hasn’t changed in decades. Our goal is to create innovative technology to transform how we care of our family members, our community members and more.”

She is the first CEO in NXT-ID’s history with a broad range of experience -- from driving revenue to marketing, to business development, all for technology companies. Chia-Lin’s pioneering career has elevated her to one of the fewer than 5% of women, and women of color CEOs running companies listed on the NASDAQ.

The company builds technology to check, manage and monitor a loved one’s health and safety remotely. The company’s products provide caretakers, including family and friends as well as professionals, with the ability to make better decisions about how best to communicate with and assist those under their care.

Chia-Lin says, “It was time for NXT-ID to hire a tech executive to innovate our Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) technology. There has been little innovation in the space. My previous work at Amazon/Audible and Google, as well as smaller start-ups, helped me to better understand what shareholders and new investors would be looking for from this tiny but amazing small-cap company.”

“When I started, we were facing numerous corporate crises: a potential delisting as well as the need to bring in capital, settle litigation, while trying to develop and market new products and services. Even though it was hectic, I was absolutely where I wanted to be. In less than 6 months, we were able to secure a solid raise through a public and private market offering, bring up the stock price to ensure the company remained listed on the NASDAQ and file some provisional patents for the company.”

NXT-ID was one of the first companies to provide unmonitored wearable devices as part of the ecosystem. It was an innovation at the time and has been a lifesaver for those individuals with fixed income who could not afford to pay for monthly subscriptions. Chia-Lin plans to return the company to its innovative roots.

“While there has been technology innovation in many areas, the Care Economy has not been the focus of many up and coming technology startups because most new technology is focused on the youth or mass market,'' Chia-Lin explained. “Our goal is to change that by providing innovative technology and transforming how we think about taking care of our family members, our community members and more.”

Today, NXT-ID provides its products and services to hundreds of thousands of U.S. veterans, who the company considers to be a “part of its family.” To attain its goal of ensuring its users are safe and secure, the company is proud to partner with hundreds of hospitals, thousands of clinics, and thousands of care providers--including doctors, nurses, social workers, and others--to help veterans live safe and independent lives.

Chia-Lin adds, “I am a sandwich generation executive: I understand the friction and issues being faced by our customers. As a caretaker myself, I am looking for a solution that I know many of us (one in four millennials, and twice that for Gen X) are looking for. And as the only female CEO in the company’s history, I bring a unique perspective to the products we are launching and the customers we are serving.”

Having been an executive working under Don Katz, CEO at Audible, Chia-Lin has observed and was mentored on how executives should focus on putting customers first. Executives at the company spent time quarterly in customer support to listen and really hear the customers. She says she plans to do the same at NXT-ID.

In addition, Chia-Lin believes that leaders should cultivate and grow new leadership in the company and in the broader technology industry. She says it's not just about mentoring; it's also about sponsoring people's growth within businesses and across industries. IEWL


Company

NXT ID Inc

Management

Chia-Lin Simmons
CEO of NXT ID Inc

Description

NXT-ID, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXTD) provides a comprehensive platform of technology products and services that enable the Internet of Things (IoT). NXT-ID has extensive experience in access control, biometric and behavior-metric identity verification, security and privacy, encryption and data protection, miniaturization and sensor technologies. NXT-ID develops and markets groundbreaking solutions for healthcare, payment and IoT applications. Its industry-leading technology products and solutions include MobileBio®, a suite of biometric solutions for IoT.


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