Joshua Feast

CEO and Co-Founder

Joshua’s focus is on helping Cogito’s clients achieve the next level of service and performance by enabling a better understanding of customer and employee attitude, intent and distress. His track-record includes over a decade of solution delivery to human services, government and financial services organizations. Prior to founding Cogito, Joshua worked at Accenture and Microsoft, as well as independently. He holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management where he was the Platinum-Triangle Fulbright Scholar in Entrepreneurship, and a Bachelor of Technology from Massey University in New Zealand.

Ali Azarbayejani

Chief Technology Officer

Ali has 13 years of commercial experience as a scientist, entrepreneur, and designer of world-class computational technologies. His pioneering doctoral research at the MIT Media Lab in probabilistic modeling for 3-D vision was the basis for his first startup company Alchemy 3D Technology, which created the market in the film and video post-production industry for camera match-moving software. He has consulted in software development and business strategy and has been on the research staff at Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs contributing to leading technologies focused on software-based digital signal processing and computational modeling and algorithms.

Alex (Sandy) Pentland

Scientific Visionary and Co-Founder

Sandy is the pioneer of reality mining technology and a leader in ubiquitous information systems. He is the founder and Director of Human Dynamics Research within the MIT Media Laboratory. He is a co-founder of the Center for Future Health at the University of Rochester, and is one of the most-cited computer scientists in the world. Sandy has won numerous international awards in the Arts, Sciences and Engineering. He was chosen by Newsweek as one of the 100 Americans most likely to shape the next century.

Peter Costello

VP Client Solutions

Peter has almost 20 years of experience in health care and technology. Previously, he was Vice President of Web and eBusiness at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Excellus Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Rochester, NY. Peter co-founded two technology-based start-ups; IPC, which developed high technology packaging solutions for the DVD industry, and MBS Solutions, which developed employer decision support systems to predict the outcomes of using high deductible health plans to self-fund benefit plans. Prior to his industry experience, Peter served as an officer, aviator and engineer in the United States Navy. He received his bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Providence College and his MBA in Finance and Statistics from the University of Illinois.

Charlie Popkin

Chief Financial Officer

Charlie is a seasoned financial professional with experience growing companies in fast paced environments. Charlie was the Chief Financial Officer of The Merallis Company, a technology services firm located in Rocky Hill, CT. Prior to Merallis, Charlie was a founding management member of PQC, Inc., a management services company which he helped grow to $80M in revenue. Charlie also founded Medical Claims Management (MCM), a practice reimbursement management and consulting firm. Earlier in his career Charlie worked as a Senior Consultant for Price Waterhouse and as Senior Accountant for Deloitte &Touche. He is a CPA, has a B.S. in Accountancy an A.S. in Management from Bentley College and an M.M. in Finance and Business Policy from the J.L. Kellogg School at Northwestern University.

Mario Bourgoin

Senior Principal Scientist

Mario is a principal research scientist responsible for developing the core technologies that support Cogito products. He is a mathematician with a deep knowledge of the statistics applied in data mining, and has published articles about the business applications of data mining, as well as research in human and machine learning and in geometric topology. During his 25 years of experience in the computer industry, Mario created, patented, and applied software for manifold purposes. He holds a doctorate in pure mathematics from Brandeis University, a masters in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT, and a bachelors in biology from Ottawa University, Canada.

Deric Corwin

Senior Director of Client Services

Deric brings more than a decade of experience leading technology-based innovation to Cogito, where he is responsible for overseeing successful delivery of commercial engagements. Prior to joining Cogito, Deric managed cross-functional teams at American Well to launch online telehealth solutions with health care and government clients. His background also includes roles at Monitor Group, Crimson Hexagon, Symantec, and Digital Equipment, leading client advisory projects across a mix of strategy, technology, and marketing topics, developing complex web-based decision-support systems, and facilitating interactive workshops and training. Deric received his M.B.A. from MIT Sloan where he won the Patrick J. McGovern Entrepreneurship Award. He also earned a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from Dartmouth College.

Monique Elder

Office Manager

Monique has over 17 years of experience as an Administrative Assistant in corporate and startup companies. Her responsibilities at Cogito include scheduling, staff training, accounting, payroll and employee relations. Her strong organizational abilities combined with excellent interpersonal, communication and leadership skills allow her to contribute to the development and accomplishment of Cogito’s business plan and objectives.

Lydia Gu

Software Engineer

Lydia has a background in image and video processing. At Cogito, she’s working on developing software infrastructure and core audio processing technology. Prior to joining Cogito, Lydia worked at Draper Laboratory on compressive sensing and its applications for image compression, classification and transmission. She also researched video compression while a graduate student at MIT, where she received bachelor and master degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

KC Laxton

Director of Security and Systems Engineering

From an early age, KC showed an interest in all things electronics. After taking apart stereos and vacuum cleaners as a small child, his parents channeled his need to tinker into a Commodore 64. From there, a lifelong interest in computers began. With more than 20 years professionally maintaining anything with a plug, KC has done just about everything when it comes to Systems Engineering. At Cogito, KC brings the experience of multiple successful startups and scaling sites at Internet speeds. Previous to Cogito, KC helped grow the Brightcove platform from a single small datacenter to a site that handles more than 9000 player loads per second. He also was the single wringable neck when it came to all matters of Security.

Skyler Place

Senior Research Scientist

Skyler is a computational social scientist with degrees in Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Computer Science. He has led extensive research projects on honest signals, social influence, decision making and behavioral health. At Cogito, Skyler manages development of mobile products. Prior to Cogito, Skyler was a Post Doctoral Research Associate at Harvard and Northeastern Universities. He holds a dual PhD from Indiana University and a BA from Colby College.

Channah Rubin

Clinical Research Assistant

Channah has a background in social and physiological psychology research. At Cogito, she’s working on researching and supporting our on-going and future clinical field trials. Prior to joining Cogito, she prepared educational psychology conferences and worked as teacher in a low-income community. She holds a BA in Psychology and English from Washington University in St. Louis.

Diana Suen

Client Services Analyst

Diana comes to Cogito with experience in business strategy and product development. Previously, she worked at The Boston Consulting Group where her work included developing a new product platform strategy for a global pharmaceutical company, and defining a new product development strategy for the US government and supporting its implementation. She has also worked with an M&A firm as well as a number of social enterprises. Diana holds an A.B. from Harvard in Government and a minor in Economics.

Tim Wills

Principal Software Engineer, Team Lead

Tim has over 20 years of experience in software design and development, as an individual contributor and technical team lead. A veteran of both large organizations and successful startups, his background includes experience developing systems in domains as diverse as NASA spacecraft telecommunications analysis, document imaging, web content distribution, data center automation, and cloud computing infrastructure management.

Chuan Zhang

Director of Operations

Chuan Zhang has an M.Eng from MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. At Cogito, Chuan has worked on every technical aspect ranging from audio signal processing, model development and IT infrastructure. Prior to joining Cogito, Chuan worked on radar signal processing at BAE Systems and factory robotics programming at General Motors. His interests include biomedical signal processing, image processing, and algorithms.