Johnny Ayers is founder and CEO of Socure, the AI-first platform for global identity and risk decisioning.

A recognized thought leader at the intersection of technology, finance, and governance, Ayers advocates for building identity as critical global infrastructure - the trust layer that underpins secure, interoperable digital economies. Under his leadership, Socure has become a global leader in
verifying billions of identities with radical accuracy while advancing trusted digital transformation worldwide.

Johnny founded the company in 2012 with a mission to provide robust identity verification services that make the digital economy more secure and efficient for all participants. Identity verification is the door through which billions of people access vital goods and services. Socure’s industry-leading technology delivers accurate, fast, and reliable verification at scale. As global systems grow increasingly fragmented, Johnny believes that identity verification is not just about access, but about enabling authentic digital dialogue, rebuilding trust between people, institutions, and technologies worldwide.

Johnny is a frequent speaker on fraud, authentication, and Anti-Money Laundering, and has been quoted in publications including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Financial Times and TechCrunch.

He won the Tech Leadership honor for software and service providers in the 2023 Banking Tech awards. In 2022, he was awarded Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year and Finovate’s Executive of the Year. He has been named by Goldman Sachs as one of the Top 100 Entrepreneurs of 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Under Johnny’s leadership, Socure has been named to the Forbes Top 50 Fintechs, the Forbes AI 50, America's Most Promising AI Companies, Inc.'s Best Places to Work, Forbes Best Startup Employers, Gartner’s Cool Vendor in AI, Red Herring's Top 100 North America, and CB Insights 250 Top Fintechs.