Old CEO was previously general counsel so its really just him going back to his old role. Robert Eckel ran a much bigger biometrics company and had been consulting for AWRE so I would bet that he offered to run it and the company jumped at the opportunity to add someone as accomplished as him and had to demote the current CEO to make room.
With regards to the business, the company has historically focused on selling perpetual licenses to government customers. This was a decent business but is a somewhat limited market and is a lumpy revenue stream.
Now that commercial biometrics is starting to move mainstream, they are looking to make inroads there with customers like major banks, healthcare providers etc. This business would more likely be Biometrics-as-a-Service They had one success with a major latin american bank in 2018 but have not gained much traction there yet. I will be that it will be Eckel's job to drive more commercial business.
The fact that the came to such a small company and has an incentive structure with options at such higher strike prices suggests to me that he is optimistic about AWRE's likelihood of success in this area.
