James Goodfellow

James Goodfellow OBE (born 1937) is a Scottish inventor. In 1966, he patented personal identification number (PIN) technology and an automated teller machine (ATM). He is generally considered the inventor of the modern ATM.

Goodfellow was born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, As a 28-year-old development engineer at Kelvin Hughes, he was given the project of developing an automatic cash dispenser in 1965. His system accepted a machine readable encrypted card, with a numerical PIN keypad. De La Rue did not patent the design. Goodfellow has publicly commented on the lack of recognition and compensation for his inventiveness, since PIN codes are ubiquitous today.

Goodfellow, a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, was inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame in 2016.