Inside Secure co-founder Bruno Charrat, who helped guide the NFC and contactless chip vendor’s technology roadmap for more than 17 years, has left the company.

Charrat, who claims an essential patent for NFC technology, applied for in 2000, which he developed with the help of co-founder Jacek Kowalski, departed in June. He took a job at U.S.-based b-pack, which has offices in France and produces procurement software for companies.

It was unclear why Charrat, whose final position for Inside was chief innovation officer, left the company. He did not respond to the question when asked by NFC Times. But Inside is moving away from its past emphasis on contactless and NFC modem chips, which was his specialty, to focus on security and digital rights management.

Besides working on Inside’s MicroRead NFC chips, Charrat played a major role in developing the technology for contactless banking chips that enabled Inside to dominate the U.S. market for several years starting in 2005. He later developed Inside’s “NFC Booster” technology, embedding a contactless antenna mainly in SIM cards.

Golden Parachute for Bashan
Meanwhile another executive, Oded Bashan, of an early contactless company, Israel-based On Track Innovations, resigned from OTI’s board of directors last month, his last official role with the company, which he co-founded in 1990.

Bashan had served as CEO and chairman until late last year, when pressure from a dissident shareholders group that would take control of the board forced him to resign both positions. He had held onto a board seat for six more months.

The company, which has never turned a profit, continues to struggle, with sales plunging by 32% in the first quarter, and the share price at the time of Bashan’s departure from the board was trading lower than it was in late December when the shareholders group seized control. The price has since gained ground following a promising development in the company’s lawsuit against telco T-Mobile USA over an NFC patent. But the price as of mid-July was only a little bit above the price just after the group takeover and well below the share price of five years earlier.

One of the main focuses of the new board members is to try to capitalize on the company’s patent portfolio, mainly contactless and NFC.

Despite the chronic losses and–according to sources–opposition to a golden parachute by the new board–Bashan and his son, Oded, former OTI president and chief marketing officer, together received a total of US$2.5 million in severance and other termination benefits.

A source with access to the information told NFC Times that the Bashans had a sweetheart deal with the previous board that would have paid them a combined $8 million in severance but agreed to take less following negotiations with the new board. The deal was announced earlier this month.