Peter Prince
President and Chief Executive Officer
Peter is a seasoned executive and successful entrepreneur with more than 22-years of enterprise software experience. Prior to Cogniti, Peter held senior positions in various privately held and publicly traded companies, managing businesses out of Europe, Australasia and the USA. Prior to Cogniti, Peter served as EMEA President at SSA Global up to the time of its sale to Infor Global Solutions.
He previously held the positions of Vice President for Infinium Inc, CEO of SER International and Vice President and Managing Director EMEA for Software Artistry Inc. He has gained valuable experience in the development of companies throughout the USA, EMEA and Asia Pacific and today is passionate about the development of young businesses. He is an investor in several businesses in the USA and Europe. He gained a degree in Business Studies from Chiltern University and is a member of the Institute of Directors in London. He resides in the United States.
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Mike Robbins
Executive Vice-President and
Mike has enjoyed over 23 years of experience as a leader and executive with various publicly-traded and privately-held enterprise software and technology companies. Prior to Cogniti, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Forensic ID, the leader in "touch" DNA recovery devices and DNA profile database technology. He previously was Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mezzia, a leading provider of enterprise capital planning software for the healthcare market. Mike also held positions as Chief Operating Officer for Corepoint Technology/an IBM company, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software provider and Senior Vice President, Worldwide Operations for Software Artistry, a publicly-traded software company in the Help Desk Automation market.
His leadership and ability to build high-performing teams have led to the rapid growth and success of numerous technology companies. Mike will also assume a Cogniti Advisory Board position in addition to his duties as COO.
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Steve Earhart
Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer
Steve Earhart's career includes 35 years of finance and operating experience, focused in public and privately held technology companies. His specialties include driving contemporary business models, mergers & acquisitions, financing, and corporate strategy. Steve retired from Motorola in 2003 where his contributions as Senior Vice President of Finance involved the launch of the cellular industry, the opening of international markets to cellular technology, and the transformation of Motorola's semi-conductor business to a fabless model.
Post Motorola, Steve served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of SSA Global Technologies, a leading provider of ERP software. During Steve's tenure, the company integrated more than a dozen acquisitions, tripled revenue, went initial public offering, and subsequently sold to Infor and its private equity backers. In 2007, Steve joined Torex Ltd (a UK based retail software provider) as an investor and EVP/CFO with a focus on the Company's operational turnaround. Steve is now a member of Mayflower LLC, an advisory firm focused on operational and finance matters.
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Lee Mashburn
Chief Marketing Officer
Lee has 25 years of marketing and product management experience in high technology software markets. Lee has overseen marketing teams based in 25 countries spanning each discipline across the marketing lifecycle, including branding, messaging, communications, operations and field marketing. Lee has held Vice President positions for highly recognized software companies SAP America, SSA Global and Intergraph Corporation.
Lee is primarily chartered to showcase Cogniti industry thought leadership, increase brand awareness and ultimately attract new customers and partners through effective marketing campaigns. Lee holds a BS degree in Pulp and Paper Science and Technology from North Carolina State University. Lee resides in Alpharetta, GA.
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Andy McKnight
Chief Information Officer
Andy has over 14 years of Applied Technology and Development experience underpinned by a distinguished Marine Corps career. Andy has global experience overseeing remote teams of up to 400 personnel focused on managing the world's most advanced technical systems. Andy initially was responsible for the development of a document and materials tracking system, and was later responsible for the identification, coordination and execution of combat deployments for over 200 technology personnel. In 2005, as the Regional Technology Officer for anti-terrorism operations in the Horn of Africa, he developed and executed tactical intelligence plans and controlled a $20m budget for R&D of new operations.
Thereafter, he was awarded the NSA Scientific Achievement Award for managing development of a global messaging system that later received federal funding for integration into other national systems. In 2008, Andy engineered the bid management process and implemented a new global purchasing system for a retail software company. He received his B.S. in Business and Computer Science and MBA in Global Business from the University of Maryland.
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Shelley Isenberg
Executive Vice-President Corporate Development and Legal Affairs
Shelley possesses over 23 years of business and legal experience exclusively in the computer industry with focus over the last 18 years on acquisitions and transformation of software companies. He has global experience operating throughout the Americas, Europe and Australia. Shelley began his career in 1986 as Asst. General Counsel for Canada Lease Financing. From 1990 until 2002 Shelley headed up the international legal department at Geac Computer Corporation as VP General Counsel. In 2002 he embarked upon a career change focusing on mergers & acquisitions with Cerberus Capital Management, at times directly and at other times for its portfolio companies; initially joining SSA Global Technologies, in Chicago as SVP M&A.
While working directly for Cerberus in New York Shelley was an Industry Specialist on its Operations Team. More recently Shelley worked for another Cerberus company, Torex Retail Holdings in the UK. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from York University, Toronto in 1980, his Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Ontario, London in 1984, and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1986. He is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada.
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Gordon Knowles
Executive Vice-President Product Strategy
Gordon has over 35 years of International Industrial and Software experience. Prior to immigrating to the U.S. in 1996, he held senior positions with several large manufacturing and engineering companies and ultimately was appointed to the board of Steinmuller Mining and Piping Systems (Pty) (Ltd) S.A. On completion of his post-graduate studies, Gordon started his career in the software industry.
He joined the Baan Company in the U.S. and soon became President of Baan Business Innovation America. Since then he has held senior positions with other leading enterprise software companies. Gordon holds a BSc (Hons) in Production Engineering and Management from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland and an MSc and PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand , South Africa. He is a recognized inventor and writer of manufacturing and industrial engineering publications.
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Steven Rees-Pullman
Senior Vice-President and Managing Director EMEA
Steven brings over 15 years in enterprise software with particular focus on developing new markets and working across numerous countries and cultures. With SSA Global, a leading extended ERP company, he developed emerging EMEA markets (Russia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Middle East) to represent one-third of EMEA total revenues and improved overall performance across Central and Western Europe. After Infor acquired SSA Global, Steven spearheaded increased indirect channel growth to represent 25% of total EMEA revenues. Steven helped successfully integrate numerous acquisitions while with SSA and Infor.
Post-Infor, Steven assumed the role of VP Emerging Markets at Torex, directly managing and growing the teams across the Asia-Pacific region (specifically China, Singapore, and Australia). Additionally, he has developed partnerships and new go-to-market strategies all over the world. The opportunity to work again with some respected colleagues, coupled with his passion to help customers focus on what matters most in their business, has drawn Steven to Cogniti.
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Andy Purvis
Senior Vice-President and Managing Director of Asia-Pacific
Andy brings 27 years of Information and Communications Technology experience and is an industry recognized pioneer in the PC and local area-networking field. In 1983, Andy established the professional services capabilities at Computacenter, which grew into Europe's largest independent IT services company. Andy was subsequently promoted to Managing Director and a member of the Computacenter executive committee, where he managed a $2 billion revenue business. He also served on the board of Scotland IS, the trade body representing 200+ software, telecommunications, IT, and creative technologies businesses throughout Scotland. After immigrating to Australia in 2005, Andy served as Chief Operations Officer of Brennan I.T., where he managed the integration of the IT Services and Telecommunications divisions into one holistic operation.
Most recently, Andy served as an Executive Director at Dell Corporation, responsible for establishing its enterprise services capability across Asia Pacific. Andy's experience, coupled with his passion for aligning operational and financial performance with strategy, means that Cogniti is an excellent choice for his new role. Andy currently resides in Sydney, where he is charted to establish and grow Cogniti in the Asia Pacific region.
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