Daniel Kelleher Appointed as Chief Technology Officer at Civic

We're excited to share that Dan Kelleher has stepped into the role of Chief Technology Officer at Civic. Dan has been an integral part of our team since 2018, when he joined as Vice President of Engineering and lead architect. Throughout his time with us, he has led our global team of agile engineers, driven by his belief in technology's power to empower and democratize. As VP of Engineering, Dan championed development best practices, including automated acceptance testing, CI/CD, and security.

Q: What drew you to Civic, and what excites you about digital identity innovation?

Dan: I joined Civic soon after smart contract blockchains emerged. Ethereum opened my eyes to the potential for permissionless systems. That naturally progresses to decentralized and self-sovereign identity. While blockchain isn't a necessity for a self-sovereign identity system, many of the underlying principles are shared. It's crucial for the CTO to grasp the technical limitations and potential of a self-sovereign identity platform and to understand how to effectively deliver that value to both end users and customers.

Q: What role do you see national digital identities playing in the near future?

Dan: Digital identity systems are evolving differently across regions. The EU already has robust digital identity frameworks in many member states, with the European Digital Identity Wallet protocol formalizing this further in 2025. The US is taking a different approach, with various state initiatives like mobile driver's licenses gaining traction. Organizations worldwide need to prepare for these developments, regardless of their implementation timeline.

Dan's move to CTO comes at an exciting time for us, as AI Agent integration is set to transform the verifiable web. Moving forward, our mission at Civic will focus on simplifying how customers, AI agent developers, and end-users can interact securely with each other.

Q: How do you see privacy and identity verification evolving with AI?

Dan: Right now, digital identity presentation is often all-or-nothing. You show your entire passport, and recipients store it all forever or, worse, share the information with third parties. Decentralized identity and self-sovereign identity allow for selective disclosure and zero-knowledge proofs, enabling granular control over shared information. For example, you can give an AI agent only the information it needs for a task. Different agents can have different permissions. They interact to achieve your goals without any one agent having the full picture. That’s very different from a traditional power of attorney.

Q: How is Civic addressing the intersection of AI agents and identity verification?

Dan: One of the things we’re doing with Civic is providing a standards-compliant but flexible way for end users to present information about themselves to third parties—safely. That third party could be an AI agent, not just a website or app. At the moment, AI agents tread lightly because there’s no accountability mechanism. But those mechanisms exist in OpenID, OAuth, and verifiable credentials. Civic is focused on making it easier for builders of AI agents and end users to interact safely.

With Dan's leadership as CTO, we're committed to staying at the cutting edge of identity verification technology. His technical expertise and vision will be key in guiding our next chapter as we continue to innovate and build solutions that meet the evolving needs of our community.