Company | Our Founder

Richard O. Warther, President and CEO, Vanguard ID Systems, Inc.

Bar code industry pioneer Rick Warther has been in the Auto ID industry since 1979. Prior to founding Vanguard ID Systems in 1987, he worked for the Graphic Technology and Data Documents Systems divisions of Pitney Bowes in Kansas City, Kansas. He also served as Vice President of Sales for Ampersand Data Graphics in Needham, Massachusetts.

A successful entrepreneur and leading innovator, Warther holds 13 United States Patents for bar coded, magnetic striped and radio frequency (RFID) transaction devices. He was the first to laser print on plastic, creating the first bar coded membership/ID card. He invented the first bar coded key tag. To date, Vanguard ID Systems has issued more than 1 billion of these popular tags. He also pioneered “Flip Chip” RFID key tags for contactless transactions.

Warther is listed in Who’s Who in Business and Industry. He also is a Program Facilitator for Strategic Coach, which provides a forum where successful entrepreneurs can strategize. The group meets four times a year in Chicago.

In his leisure time, Warther enjoys aviation and other pursuits. He holds a private pilot’s license (instrument rated) and volunteers as an Angel Flight pilot, providing medical air transportation for patients in need. He also serves on the board of the American Helicopter Museum. Warther has also served as a Championship Auto Racing Technical Official (CART).

He holds a bachelor of science degree in Communications from Kent State University.

 

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DataGuard Security System™ Vanguard Corporate Overview Video (Quicktime)
News
04/17/2008
Vanguard Wins Judge's Choice Elan Award from the ICMA
Vanguard ID Systems recently took home a prestigious ICMA Élan Award in the Judges’ Choice category for its design of an RFID key tag for The Woods Coffee. The Judges’ Choice is unique in that allows the Élan judges to recognize their favorite entry from among all the submissions received in every category.
12/22/2007
Vanguard remains a leader in its field
Anyone giving a gift card for Christmas or carrying a supermarket rewards tag on a keychain or a library card in a wallet more than likely have had their hands on a Vanguard ID Systems product. The privately owned company, founded two decades ago by Richard O. Warther, produces the ubiquitous plastic cards and tags. Customers range from retailers to minor league baseball teams, with the company’s heaviest concentration in library and health clubs. At 53, Warther describes himself as “an old bar code guy.” In the early days of the technology, Warther worked for grocery store chains and later Graphic Technology and Data Document Systems, both in Kansas City, Kan. He founded Vanguard ID in 1987 with the help of several financial backers. “They put up the money, I supplied the knowledge and backbone,” Warther said.
12/04/2007
Vanguard ID Systems surpasses a major milestone - one billion key tags manufactured
Vanguard ID Systems announced today that it has manufactured its one-billionth bar coded key tag. Twenty years after inventing the technology, Vanguard has surpassed this milestone, producing 1,020,118,000 key tags to date. Over that period, the increasingly ubiquitous accessory produced by the West Chester, PA based corporation has taken up residence next to house keys and car keys the world over. In fact, if you laid all of the key tags Vanguard has produced end to end, the resulting strand would produce a bar code that would encircle the earth one and two-thirds times.