Partnerships, Acquisitions, & General Facts

Q: What is Smartmatic?

FACT: Smartmatic is a privately-owned, multinational company that designs and deploys technology solutions to help governments to fulfill their commitments with their citizens. It is a fast-growing, cutting-edge technology and services supplier with a wide and proven experience in the United States, Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Q: How many offices and employees does Smartmatic have?

FACT: Smartmatic employs over 600 professionals who assist election commissions from offices in the United States, The Netherlands, Belgium, Mexico, Panama, Barbados, Brazil, Venezuela, Australia, Philippines, Argentina, Haiti, Brazil, United Arab Emirates and Taiwan.

Smartmatic’s first office was in Boca Raton and they are headquartered in London, United Kingdom.

Q: What is the International Elections Advisory Council?

FACT: In 2015, Smartmatic established the International Elections Advisory Council, a body within their corporation that is meant to guide the employees in the complex landscape of the industry. Richard Soudriette is the chairman of the council, as well as the founding president of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. The council assembles exclusive leaders with unparalleled experience and knowledge of elections to advise Smartmatic leadership as they provide election solutions and management globally.

Q: Is Smartmatic privately owned?

FACT: Yes. Smartmatic has no ties to political parties or groups in any country and abides by a stringent code of ethics that forbids the company to ever donate to any political campaigns of any kind.  The company’s headquarters were originally based in Florida, but have since moved to London to service its global client base.

Q. Does George Soros have any ownership stake in Smartmatic?

FACT: No. Soros does not own voting machines or any portion in the company. Chairman Lord Mark Malloch-Brown is a member of several non-profit boards addressing global issues from poverty reduction to conflict resolution, including the Global Board of the Open Society Foundation, which Soros founded and funded. The organization is unrelated to Smartmatic. This is stated clearly in his official biography. Lord Malloch-Brown is a highly respected global figure whose credentials include former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and former Vice-Chairman of the World Economic Forum. He also served in the British Cabinet as Minister of State in the Foreign Office.

Q. Is Smartmatic a marketing business rather than a software and hardware company?

FACT: No. Smartmatic’s headcount in R&D is far greater than its competing companies. In fact, half of the company’s workforce is focused in these areas (over 250 programmers in R&D centers in Taiwan, Estonia, and Panama).

Smartmatic manufactures and sells more electronic voting machines (with VVPAT) and vote counting machines than any other company in the world. Smartmatic owns the intellectual property and licenses to all its developments. The only parts of the Smartmatic supply chain that are subcontracted, at any point, are elements of logistics and assembly.

Smartmatic provides election automation technology and services in many countries, including the United States, Brazil, Belgium, and the United Kingdom among many others.

Q. How many countries does Smartmatic operate in?

FACT: Smartmatic leads a diverse group of professionals from around 37 nations that continuously innovate new products for new markets.

Management/Board of Directors

Q: Who is Antonio Mugica?

FACT: Antonio Mugica is one of the three founders of Smartmatic and currently the CEO and Director. Since 2000, Mugica has defined and cultivated the company. Mugica has been the brains behind many of the developments, with more than 11 patents under his belt and more pending. Mugica is devoted to both art and his business. Mugica has a degree in Electronic Engineering from Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela and is also the CEO and Director of SGO. He oversees multiple research and development centers and has defined the strategic planning of all areas and departments for Smartmatic. Mugica enjoys art, music, and writing and has even written a book entitled Hukiti-Tukiti-Ta, which was awarded the Moonbeam Children’s Book Medal.

Q: Who is Roger Piñate?

FACT: Roger Piñate is a co-founder of Smartmatic and currently operates as the president of the company. Roger’s role is responsible for the execution of strategic efforts and key operational functions worldwide. Piñate has a degree in Electronic Engineering from the Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela where he met Antonio Mugica, a co-founder, in the university. Mugica and Alfredo José Anzola (another co-founder) had studied together since kindergarten. Piñate plays a key role in the strategic relationship building, production strategy, and industrial design processes.

Q: Who is Lord Mark Malloch-Brown?

FACT: Mark Malloch-Brown is the Chairman of Smartmatic and a former number two in the United Nations as well as having served in the British Cabinet and Foreign Office. He now sits in the House of Lords and is active both in business and in the non-profit world. He also remains deeply involved in international affairs. Mark served as Deputy Secretary-General and Chief of Staff of the UN under Kofi Annan. For six years before that he was Administrator of the UNDP, leading the UN’s development efforts around the world. He was later Minister of State in the Foreign Office, covering Africa and Asia, and was a member of Gordon Brown’s cabinet.

Q: Who is on the board of directors?

FACT: The board of directors is made up of a diverse team from all over the world. The board includes Antonio Mugica, Roger Piñate, Chairman Lord Mark Malloch-Brown,  David Giampaolo, and Sir Nigel Knowles.

Q: How does the company structure operate?

FACT: Smartmatic has an international ownership structure comparable to many multi-national companies. This structure was designed so that Smartmatic can operate efficiently and effectively in different markets and regions around the world.

Robert Cook is the Smartmatic President for the US and he is leading regional and subsidiary operations in the systems integration, services and high technology marketplace; Ramaakanth Sake leads Asia Pacific and is in charge of directing Smartmatic’s operations and organization throughout the Asia and Pacific region, in accordance with the ambitious expansion plans Smartmatic has for the continent; Marco Huberts heads Europe, Middle East and Africa through market-building and development of new business opportunities; Pedro Mugica champions Latin America by overseeing regional presidents for the region.

History Facts

Q: What elections has Smartmatic contributed to globally?

FACT: Since its founding, Smartmatic has registered and counted over 3.7 billion votes in election processes in five continents. Smartmatic has helped conduct elections in Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the United States. Smartmatic has also deployed technology to help governments build civil registries and voter databases.

Q: What projects of biometric register has Smartmatic conducted?

 FACT: In 2009, Smartmatic employed its technology in Bolivia to create the first Biometric Electoral Roll in the continent, registering 5 million Bolivian citizens in less than three months.

In Mexico, Smartmatic was selected by the Secretaría de Gobernación de Mexico (SEGOB) to supply its technologies to improve the national population registry. In 2010, Smartmatic was also selected by The United Nations, through its Development Programme (UNDP), to provide new technologies for the improvement of the electoral register of the Republic of Zambia.

Most recently, Smartmatic provided VIU-800 devices to the Armenian government for the biometric authentication of voters during the Parliamentary Elections in April 2017.

Smartmatic also assisted in the voter registration in Sierra Leone at the beginning of the year.

Q: What other projects has Smartmatic worked on?

 FACT: In addition to its work in elections and biometric register, Smartmatic has implemented an advanced Public Safety and Security platform in the Philippines and Venezuela.

In Colombia, Smartmatic developed and operates brand-new Automated Fare Collection, Fleet Management and User Information Systems for the city of Cartagena.

Q: What are Smartmatic’s most important achievements?

FACT:  Since 2004, Smartmatic has counted more votes than any other private company. It has recorded more than 3.7 billion audited votes, and its technology has been recognized by major international election observation missions.

The first Biometric Electoral Register carried out using Smartmatic technology by the National Electoral Court of Bolivia was a massive project. 5 million citizens were registered in only 75 days. In 2010, Smartmatic was selected by the Development Programme of the United Nations to provide new technologies for the improvement of the electoral register of the Republic of Zambia.

In 2011, Smartmatic won an 18-year contract to implement and operate an automated fare collection and fleet management system in Cartagena, as part of a Colombian city’s new integrated mass transport system. Also in 2012, Belgium chose Smartmatic to design and manufacture its electoral hardware and software for the next 15 years. Smartmatic technology has been used in at least four elections. In Venezuela, Smartmatic has provided election technology and services for the last fourteen national elections. In this country, Smartmatic helped conduct the world’s first election through biometric authentication. Smartmatic has worldwide presence with active marketing in over 40 countries.

Smartmatic has invested the most in R&D in election technology and has some 20 patents related to election hardware and software. The company employs more than 200 engineers and programmers that work daily from its enters in Estonia, Taiwan and Panama.
Smartmatic has also provided the automation of the world’s largest election using VCMs, which resulted in over 750 million votes registered, transmitted and consolidated in one day. The company also conducted the world’s first election with biometric authentication of all voters.

And recently, an online voting solution in which the voter can use a selfie to validate his or her identity. They also developed the International Elections Advisory Council, formed by high-profile experts with profound knowledge in elections.