Cognisco Expands Management Team to Accelerate Growth

 Cognisco Expands Management Team to Accelerate Growth

Cognisco, a leading global provider of intelligent employee assessments is strengthening its management team with three new senior appointments. Martin Tafft joins as Strategic Alliance Manager to manage and expand the company’s growing network of strategic alliance partners, Julian Oates has been appointed as Projects and Professional Services Manager and Richard Bethune has joined as Content Production Manager.

Mary Clarke, CEO of Cognisco commented, “Over the past 18 months, Cognisco has seen a significant increase in demand for employee assessments from many industry sectors. We have won many new customers, grown our existing client base and established several strategic alliance partnerships. We will be announcing a range of exciting new products in the next few months and we are in a great position to build on our success. The appointments of Martin, Julian and Richard will enhance our management team and our capabilities, enabling us to accelerate our growth and reach out to new customers and global markets.”

Martin Taft brings to Cognisco over 25 years’ experience gained in sales and marketing roles within IT, Telecoms applications and consultancy.  He has worked for multi-national companies including IBM, Siemens, BT and Orange, developing and managing alliances and indirect channels.  He has strong business development experience and was instrumental in the creation and development of several start-up UK organisations.

Julian Oates has over 25 years’ experience in Project Management, Consultancy and Professional Services in industries including IT, HR, manufacturing and engineering.  He has worked for multinational engineering companies such as Tube Investments and managed improvement projects in the UK, Europe and USA for T&N Group.  He also has consultancy experience with BP’s IT division and PA Consulting Group.   A qualified engineer, he gained an MBA from the London Business School and is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development.  Prior to joining Cognisco, Julian was Professional Services Manager for Triad Group Plc. 

Richard Bethune held the position of Technical Services Manager (EMEA) at SAI Global for the last four years.  SAI provides organisations around the world with information services and solutions for managing risk, achieving compliance and driving business improvement.  

As Head of Technical Services he has deployed and customised SAI’s Learning Management Systems and Business Process Software for clients including BT, Shell, RBS, Astra Zeneca and Allied Irish Bank. Prior to working at SAI, Richard was Operations Director at Zenosis for three years, which is a start-up company that develops e-learning modules for the pharmaceutical industry.  He successfully deployed systems to Astra Zeneca and Sanofi-Aventis.

Prior to this, Richard was the Learning Systems Manager at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) managing the implementation of e-learning to 100 manufacturing sites worldwide.  He joined GSK in 1989 as a Development Chemist and built a network of e-learning practitioners within GSK becoming acknowledged as the company expert. Richard has a BSc (Hons) Chemistry, 1st Class, Post Graduate Diploma (Computing) and he is an ISO 9000 lead Auditor.