Our leadership

Girish Rishi is the Chief Executive Officer at Cognite, the leading Industrial DataOps platform company that harnesses the power of data and AI to deliver actionable insights to the energy and industrial sectors. Most recently, Rishi was the CEO at Blue Yonder, a leading supply chain software company. During his tenure, the business transformed into the cloud, driving strong growth, profitability, innovation, customers, and employee satisfaction. Prior to his CEO position at Blue Yonder, Rishi held executive leadership positions at Motorola, Tyco, and Symbol Technologies, where he led global businesses that delivered IoT, software, and services. Rishi has a master’s degree in public policy from Johns Hopkins University, an MBA from the University of Hartford, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Mumbai.

Dr. John Markus Lervik is the Chief Strategy & Development Officer and co-founder of Cognite, serving as CEO from the foundation to 2022. Throughout his career, Lervik has channelled his passion for liberating data and innovating with technology into companies that revolutionize the ways we work. After finalizing his PhD at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), he co-founded Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) in 1997 and served first as Chief Technology Officer and later as Chief Executive Officer until Microsoft acquired the company in 2008 for USD 1.3 billion. He then took the position of Vice President of Enterprise Search at Microsoft before leaving in 2009 to found the software company Cxense, which was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2014. In 2005 Lervik was recognized by Forbes as a member of the E-gang for his pioneering work in the technology sector.

Laxmi Akkaraju has more than 20 years of experience in technology, strategy, and business transformation from leadership positions at companies such as GSMA, TietoEVRY, Holte Consulting, and Mu Dynamics. Akkaraju has a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Colorado.

Paul Grenet brings extensive experience driving global technology companies’ sales organizations and go-to-market strategies. He is heading all aspects of Cognite’s revenue performance, including managing its global sales and customer success organizations and executing its go-to-market strategy. Prior to Cognite, Grenet served as the Global Head of Sales for PTC, an industrial software company, for their Internet of Things (IoT) and Augmented Reality (AR) businesses. He also served as Head of Field Strategy, Operations, and Planning and was the General Manager for the EMEA region for PTC.

Christine Tønsberg Nilsen is responsible for all legal operations in Cognite globally. Christine has extensive legal experience and is a specialist in technology law and SaaS, with a focus on strategic and commercial assessments. She is very interested in thinking outside the box and is known for having digitized and streamlined the legal department in Cognite in record time through the implementation and use of legal-tech tools.

Christine has previously worked in the technology department of SANDS and been Chief Legal Officer in the listed technology company NEXT Biometrics. In addition to her law degree, she has a degree in entrepreneurship and a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

As the Chief Human Resources Officer, Liat Berger plays a crucial role in driving Cognite's scale-up strategy and energizing the company's global workforce. Prior to Cognite, she spent 10 years as Senior Vice President of People and Organization, Corporate at Aker Solutions, and previously held the position of Head of P&O for the Subsea Organization at the same company. Liat holds a degree in Business Administration from Universidade Federal do Parana and specializes in Group Dynamics and People Management.

Petteri Vainnikka is the Chief Marketing Officer at Cognite. Vainikka’s professional career spans across enterprise SaaS technologies, where he has found himself at the intersection of emerging transformational technology development and its commercial applications for customers. Prior to Cognite, Vainnikka worked in senior product management, marketing, sales, and general management positions for companies such as at Sumea, Rovio, and Cxense. Vainnikka has a master’s degree in technology from Aalto University in Helsinki.

Geir Engdahl is the Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Cognite. Engdahl runs Cognite’s R&D department, leading the development of Cognite Data Fusion. In 2011, Engdahl founded Snapsale, a machine learning classifieds startup. He served as CEO and CTO until Schibsted acquired the company in 2017. Before that, he spent three years working as a senior software engineer for Google in Canada. Engdahl has a master’s degree in computational science from the University of Oslo.

Francois Laborie has previously run Cognite’s Americas region and managed Cognite’s overall marketing activities, including product marketing, and the Cognite partner network, as Chief Marketing Officer. He spent the preceding 11 years with the software company Vizrt, where he served as COO and CCO, responsible for all commercial and operational activities. Laborie has a Ph.D. in computer science from the Toulouse Research Institute in Computer Science (IRIT).

Jeff Coulter is the Chief Financial Officer at Cognite. He most recently served as Senior Vice President of Finance at Instructure where he led financial planning and analysis (FP&A) and has held leadership positions at Blue Yonder, Intel, and Procter & Gamble. He holds an MBA in Finance and a BS in Org Psychology, both from Brigham Young University.  

Emmanuelle Camus is the President of Cognite EMEA. Prior to joining Cognite, Camus spent 25 years at PTC in various leadership roles focused on business transformation and served most recently as their Senior Vice President of Alliances EMEAI. She has extensive experience in driving exponential growth in Europe & India through B2B sales and leveraging strategic alliances & partners and a strong background in solving Industry 4.0 challenges, digital transformation, Corporate Social Responsibility and Diversity, Equality & Inclusion. She is a graduate of NEOMA Business School.

Ryochi has been President for Cognite Japan since 2022, and has over 15 years experience working with Cognite co-founder John Markus Lervik. In 1997, he joined Oracle Corporation Japan, and later worked as a sales director at IBM Japan, Autonomy, and Fast Search & Transfer, a leading search engine company, where he was responsible for implementing search and recommendation solutions for numerous websites. In 2010, he participated in the launch of Cxense, a cloud-based revenue maximization and UX improvement solution for media, as Representative Director. Following the acquisition and merger with Piano Softwear Inc. of the U.S., he has served as the representative of Piano Japan K.K. since February 2020.