HID Global is an American manufacturer of secure identity products. The company is an independent brand of Assa Abloy, a Swedish door and access control conglomerate. Björn Lidefelt was appointed CEO on 27 January 2020. He succeeded Stefan Widing, who led HID Global for over four years. History Originally formed to develop radio frequency identification technologies, HID Global was formed in 1991 as Hughes Identification Devices, a subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft Company with offices in California and Scotland. The original 125-kilohertz and 400-kilohertz proximity technology had been pioneered by Destron/IDI (formerly Identification Devices Inc.), in Boulder, Colorado, and used primarily for Animal Identification and Proximity Access Control, and to a lesser degree in Manufacturing Processes, Tyre tracking and a few other Asset Identification applications. Already a supplier to Destron/ID of low-frequency microchips, Hughes Aircraft Company acquired exclusive rights to the Access Control and Industrial markets, leading to the formation of Hughes Identification Devices. In 1994 the office in Scotland was closed and the European business passed to a UK based independent distributor, ID Plus Ltd who were later acquired by HID Corporation Ltd in August 1999. In October 1995, Hughes management, with help from Citibank Venture Capital, combined its military communications and display products groups with its AML Wireless Systems organization and Hughes Identification Devices (HID) to form Palomar Technologies Corporation. It was at that point that the decision was made to focus efforts on RFID for physical access control, and five years later, the company was acquired by the world's largest lock-maker, Swedish conglomerate Assa Abloy AB. Products The company sells physical access control products, logical access control products, and secure issuance products that comprise cards, readers, smart card readers (OMNIKEY), networked access products, card printer/encoders (FARGO) and software. Its other business segments includes virtualization technology, cashless payment, government ID, RFID for industry and logistics and Animal ID solutions and professional services. HID manufactures and licenses several types of technologies, from Wiegand products to 13.56 MHz iCLASS, MIFARE, and DESFire, as well as the 125 kHz Indala and Prox cards. Migration readers from various 125 kHz Prox technologies to 13.56 MHz iCLASS were introduced in 2007. Manufacturing The company is based in Austin, Texas with other production facilities in Asia and Europe. Some of these facilities are located in Hong Kong, China and Galway, Ireland. It also has research and development centers in Cardiff, UK, Zabierzow, Poland, Fremont and