About

COGNITIVE WORLD optimizes the journey to AI transformation for enterprises globally.

Founded in 2016 by Lisa Wood and Peter Fingar, with Vint Cerf, co-father of the Internet and other initial think tank members, CogWorld has a diverse and growing ecosystem of members including AI solution providers, enterprise buyers, associations, institutes, and research, education, event and media partners.

Lisa Wood, a longtime deep tech entrepreneur and big business media veteran, has custom published many of the largest hi-tech productions ever to appear in Fortune and BusinessWeek. 

Lisa is Co-Founder of Cognitive World and also Co-Founder of Hypercomputation LLC and Analog Computation Enterprise Inc., both pioneers in the MMIC semiconductor space offering Wood’s revolutionary ONS (Octopus Neural System), a physics-based patented artificial intelligence platform that requires no training and is unbiased and highly scalable.

Chan Chuan Chen helps with member services. Chan brings together people who want to connect, educate, and learn, and is well-connected in the AI, enterprise, healthcare, startup, and VC community. She is a UC Berkeley and Columbia University alum.

Andrew Spanyi is a think tank member and advisor. Andrew’s work on process management and operational leadership is internationally recognized. He is the author of three books, over 100 articles and has delivered speeches and workshops in countries all around the world. His 2003 book "BPM is a Team Sport - Play it to Win," was widely acknowledged as laying the foundation for the importance of customer focus and collaboration in deploying BPM. Andrew founded Spanyi International Inc. in 1991 and has continuously served as the firm’s Managing Director, and is on the board of advisors with the Association of BPM Professionals. Andrew previously taught process management at Babson College and was a member of the Babson Institute of Process Management. Earlier, Andrew was a Managing Partner of The Rummler-Brache Group (Canada). Andrew has worked on over 170 major projects and has served clients in a broad range of industries including aerospace, banking, government, insurance, petro-chemical, pharmaceutical, and telecommunications. His current work is at the intersection of customer experience, process management and digital technologies.

Shar Govindan is a think tank member and advisor. Shar is a director at Bentley Systems. He’s educated 1000s of people around the World on advancing infrastructure and is a TEDx speaker (http://www.doyourhow.com). Shar has coauthored several publications including "Students' LinkedIn Checklist" (Amazon, 2016), “How Companies Succeed in Social Business” (Pearson, 2015), Social BOOM (Financial Times Press, 2011) and Computer Modeling of Water Distribution Systems (AWWA, 2012 and 2017). Shar served as a co-chair of TSIA’s social media round table, on Constellation’s Future of Work research panel, and on AWWA’s Engineering Modeling Applications Committee.

Shar has a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Connecticut and serves on their Civil and Environmental Engineering Advisory Board. He has completed the Business Foundations Specialization through Coursera from The Wharton School, Credential of Readiness program from Harvard Business School, and Project Management Mastery from Stanford University. He is a frequent speaker at learning, technology, and social media conferences, and volunteers as a judge for STEM competitions. He started the Govindan family foundation program that has awarded numerous fellowships to engineering students, hundreds of interest-free loans through Kiva.org and sponsored food grills for FeelGood.org student chapters. Shar received the PATHFINDER and FOUNDERS' awards from Bentley, earned innovation awards from CEdMA and Totango for Bentley, and was elected to University of Connecticut's Academy of Distinguished Engineers.

Ganesh Padmanabhan is a think tank member and advisor. Ganesh founded the video series Stories in AI, featured on CogWorld and elsewhere. Ganesh is a technologist, storyteller and an activator that makes things happen. He’s most passionate about bringing disruptive technologies to market and delivering outstanding value and early competitive advantage to customers, partners and shareholders. His areas of expertise involve Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning, Big Data and Cloud, strategy, product and business development in Fortune 50 companies and high growth startups.

Geoff Dodge, advisor, is a seasoned executive with sales strategy and leadership experience across a unique combination of industries: offline and online media, SaaS based CRM, data driven, digital advertising and analytics technology. Areas of responsibility have included: sales, marketing, sales operations, solutions engineering, sales training and enablement. A proven entrepreneurial spirit in both large and small companies. Solid understanding of how to leverage salesforce.com across multiple parts of an organization to drive operational efficiency and effectiveness. 

Chuck Brooks, think tank member and advisor, is named "Top Tech Person To Follow" by LinkedIn, voted "Cybersecurity Person of the Year,” is cited as a Top 10 Global Tech & Cyber Expert and Influencer, is a Georgetown University professor, a 2X presidential appointee, a FORBES writer and has over 100k LinkedIn followers.

Dan Conway, PhD, is a think tank member and advisor. Dan is an analytics and AI journeyman. His Ph.D. is in Operations Research from Indiana University and has served on the faculty of Notre Dame, Indiana, Northwestern, Iowa, Florida, Virginia Tech, South Florida, and Arkansas. Dan serves on several blockchain standards boards and advises several blockchain startups. In addition to university faculty roles, he has consulted for dozens of companies, including Cisco Systems, Deere, AIG, Consulate Healthcare, and other organizations with interest in information security.

Sanjit Singh Dang, PhD is a think tank member and advisor. Sanjit has been a successful venture capitalist, corporate executive, board member, speaker and writer in Silicon Valley for almost two decades. He is currently Co-Founder and Chairman of U First Capital, providing Venture Capital as a Service to corporations by bringing startups, university IP, etc. in the corporate's specific areas of interest. Prior to that, Dr. Dang was at Intel Capital driving 1 Exit every year: DocuSign (IPO 2018), Body Labs (AI startup, Acquired by Amazon in 2017 within 2 years of leading Series A investment), Voke (acquired by Intel in 2016), Maginatics (acquired by EMC in 2015) and Basis Science (acquired by Intel in 2014). He has been an investor and on the board of several companies, and has been on Hillary Clinton's Tech/Innovation Policy Advisory team. He is on the Advisory Council of the UN’s World Artificial Intelligence Organization. He has also been on the University of California President's Innovation Council.

Sanjit has the fastest Engineering PhD from University of Illinois (2yrs 9mo after undergrad), which he received in 2000 with top research awards. He also attended the VC Executive program at Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. He has been an invited speaker at several top conferences, eg SURGE/WebSummit, TiECon, ShopTalk, McKinsey Leadership Summit, Silicon Valley Open Doors, Global AI conference. He’s a mentor at Stanford and Berkeley’s Entrepreneurship programs. Sanjit has over a decade of Exec leadership experience. He has managed $2Bill/year accounts and executed 30 partnership deals in $100M-$2Bill range.

Ahmed El Adl, PhD is a think tank member and advisor. Ahmed is a technology thought leader and change agent with a proven track record of achievements in envisioning and creating new technologies. Ahmed current focus is the advancement of AI and its adoption in industries. A main focus area for Ahmed is the Cognitive Digital Twin - CDT. Ahmed has a PhD. in computer science and robotics.

Setrag Khoshafian, PhD is a think tank member and advisor. Setrag has been a senior executive in the software industry where he innovated, architected, and led the development of several software products, services, and solutions. Setrag is currently Principal and Chief Scientist at Khosh Consulting, working with startups and incumbent enterprises primarily through best practices with Low Code/No Code, Process Mining, Blockchain, IoT, AI, and Process Automation. Previously I was Chief Evangelist & VP of BPM at Pegasystems Inc., Senior VP of Technology at Savvion, and Chief Scientist & VP of Development at Portfolio Technologies.

Dr. Khoshafian is pioneer and recognized expert in Intelligent Databases and Intelligent Business Process Management. His expertise in iBPM spans BPM, Process Mining, RPA, Low Code/No Code, and Process Automation methodologies - Design Thinking, Lean Six Sigma, and Agile as well as pioneer work in BPM Centers of Excellence. More recently he’s focused on best practices for cultural shifts, innovations, and digital transformations through Low Code/No Code, Process Mining, Blockchain, IoT, AI, and Process Automation.

Setrag has authored more than 10 books and hundreds of business and academic articles in recognized journals. His most recent book How to Alleviate Digital Transformation Debt covers the spectrum of Cultural and Technological transformations - with Hyperautomation, Operational Excellence, Citizen Developers, AI, Low Code/No Code, Customer Experience Optimization, Design Thinking, Blockchain, IoT, and Competency Centers. Each chapter includes pragmatic action items and recommendations.

Mark Minevich is a think tank member and advisor. Mark is a trusted digital cognitive strategist, AI expert, venture capitalist, and the principal founder of Going Global Ventures. Mark collaborates and advises large global enterprises both in the US and Japan (Hitachi), and is an advisor to the Boston Consulting Group. Currently, he serves as the strategic advisor and global ambassador to the CEO and Chairman of New York based IPsoft Inc.

Mark is a senior fellow with the U.S. Council on Competitiveness in Washington, D.C., and maintains a position as senior adviser on Global Innovation and Technology to the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS). He is an appointed member of the G20/B20’s Digital Task Force and is also the founder and Co-Chair of the World Artificial Intelligence Organization and AI Pioneers based in New York, and was appointed as the Global Digital Ambassador to the World Assessment Council in early 2020. He is the Strategic Advisor to the SwissCognitive "independent" Global AI think tank in Switzerland. Mark also advises venture capital groups, and acts as a Fund Adviser to Bootstrap Labs.

Mark is also a trusted Advisor and Entrepreneur in Residence for Hanaco Ventures, a global venture fund that focuses on late-stage, pre-IPO Israeli and US companies. Forbes has named Mark one of the Leaders to Watch and he has received the Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievement and the World Trade Leadership Award. Mark was also involved with Research Board, a Gartner company and international think-tank advising CIOs at some of the world’s largest corporations.

Abigail Hing Wen is a think tank member and advisor to CogWorld. Abigail is an American writer, film producer, lawyer, and speaker. Her debut young adult novel, Loveboat, Taipei, was purchased in a multi-house auction by HarperCollins in a two-book deal, along with Loveboat Reunion.

She was Senior Director of Emerging AI Tech, Office of the CTO, Artificial Intelligence Platforms Group at Intel. She is a multibillion dollar negotiator, corporate strategist, public speaker and author.

Previously, she served as legal lead for Intel Capital’s AI investments and strategic transactions, closing deals ranging from seed funding to $4.1B in ASML. Abigail is also the Partnership on AI’s Co-Chair for the Expert Group on Fairness, Transparency and Accountability and sits on their Transparency in Machine Learning Steering Committee.

Abigail’s writing on AI have appeared in Fortune and Forbes. She speaks on AI, venture capital, diversity and leadership in national and international venues and has been profiled in media/TV in Entertainment Weekly, NBCNews, Bloomberg TV and the World Journal.

Abigail holds a BA from Harvard in Government and International Relations and JD from Columbia Law School. Prior to Intel, she practiced law at Sullivan & Cromwell and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, advising clients on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley. She also worked in DC on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Rich Gora is an advisor to Cognitive World. Rich is an attorney at Gora LLC and has represented clients in over 100 cases in federal and state courts. He advises broker-dealers, investment advisers, hedge funds and other investment vehicles on all aspects of fund structuring and formation.

Gora LLC has drafted PPMs for large and small equity investments and advises on M&A, investment and securities offering activities. Rich advises various hedge funds with billions of AUM, private equity and venture capital. Before founding Gora LLC, Rich Gora was an attorney at Finn Dixon & Herling LLP. He has advised high-profile clients, including a founder of Google Energy, a member of the Rockefeller family, a Spotify executive, a Bitcoin pioneer, and the former CFO of Lehman Brothers. He advises clients globally.

Visit Peter Fingar’s Tribute Page (he passed in August 2021). Peter will be remembered dearly by many CogWorld think tank and corporate members. Peter teamed up with Lisa to bring his cognitive business process perspective to CogWorld’s members and broader audience. Peter is an internationally recognized expert on business strategy, globalization and business process management. He’s a practitioner with over 40 years of hands-on experience at the intersection of business and technology, and is known for a good number of best selling books he’s authored.

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