Cogna appoints senior leaders to drive growth in UK & EMEA

Cogna has announced two senior appointments as it expands operations to meet increased demand from utilities, logistics and manufacturing sectors.

Luke Rogers has been named Go-to-Market Advisor. Rogers brings over two decades of experience in scaling sales operations in technology businesses. He previously played a key role at AppDynamics, contributing to the company's growth from a valuation of USD $80 million to a USD $3.7 billion acquisition by Cisco within four years.

Rogers subsequently led global go-to-market efforts at Instabase, where he steered the transition from founder-led sales to an enterprise-focused sales organisation and delivered revenue growth of more than seven times in under three years. He now holds the position of VP Sales EMEA at ComplyAdvantage, where his focus is on establishing enterprise sales playbooks and entering new markets.

At Cogna, Rogers will be responsible for advising on go-to-market strategy, talent development, and sales execution, supporting the company's scaling process and working to align solutions with customer requirements.

In addition, James Dickinson has joined as UK Solution Strategy Director. Dickinson brings 15 years' experience applying data and technology in sectors such as aviation, healthcare, and defence. He was an early member of Palantir's London office, where he helped build the team and led the rollout of large-scale programmes across several international markets.

Most recently, Dickinson was AI Director at the NHS. In that role, he led a national team focused on deploying AI in genomics and worked with technology partners including AWS, DeepMind, and NVIDIA. Dickinson's background in AI dates to his university research, where he helped create a cloud-enabled machine learning application for breast cancer diagnosis. Over his career, he has led projects in early intervention in social care and anomaly detection in European aviation.

At Cogna, Dickinson will lead the UK Solution Strategy team, working closely with clients to design and implement bespoke digital solutions to operational challenges.

Cogna, founded in London in 2023, develops AI-driven custom software solutions for the utilities, logistics, manufacturing, and infrastructure sectors, working with frontline teams to target productivity bottlenecks and improve efficiency. Its clientele includes Cadent Gas, Network Plus, OCU, and Ocado, with additional projects in progress. The company raised USD $15 million in Series A funding in October 2024, supported by Notion Capital, Hoxton Ventures, and Chalfen Ventures, and currently employs a team of fifty comprised of engineers and experts from organisations such as Google, Microsoft, and Palantir.

"Luke and James bring a wealth of experience in scaling go-to-market organizations and delivering transformative technology to customers. Their leadership will be invaluable as we enter our next phase of growth." - Ben Peters, CEO and Co-founder, Cogna

Both appointments come as Cogna increases its international scope in response to rising requirements from critical industry sectors.