In a small to medium enterprise success often comes down to a single business decision. Access to the top-level expertise needed at critical inflection points is often too costly or requires long term commitment – but this can be the difference between stagnation and growth.
Our four founders saw this too often when providing advice, executing strategies and transforming operations at large corporations. We saw the impact of poor business decisions and inability to adapt to changing market conditions. Cognisium springs from this experience.
We provide a knowledge sharing community, bringing together Experts and Clients in an affordable and flexible way so that you can adapt to the ever-changing business climate.
Cognisium was conceived three years ago and is now open for business. Our freelance global executive marketplace is powered by our unique technology platform, developed in Israel. Cognisium’s HQ and support centre are located in Australia, and we have a satellite office in Dubai.
It is time to re-imagine the small to medium enterprise.
Collective years
of experience
110
4
Founders
For our Clients
We built Cognisium to help small to medium enterprises access the brightest top executives quickly, efficiently and at a competitive rate in order to support their growth and aspirations. We shift the paradigm of full time executives on the payroll to a more flexible and agile way of doing business.
Our Experts’ motivation for joining Cognisium is not to build a career - they have already done that. They bring a strong desire to share their expertise with you and support your business through critical inflection points.
And who better than you, knows where or for how long this expertise is needed?
For our Experts
For our freelance expert executives, the Cognisium platform enables you to bring your knowledge to new and exciting challenges and industries with flexible earnings, without the commitment of a full time role. Our approach gives you the freedom to focus on family or pursuits that may have taken a back seat whilst working full time to build your career.
Our leaders in the media
Dr Dorel Iosif in CEO World Magazine
The first 100 days in the life of a CEO.
Innovation vs. Transformation. Let's get this right.
Dr Dorel Iosif's Lecture
John Curtin Institute for Public Policy
Robin Mills
on Bloomberg
on CNBC
at World Energy Congress
Cognisium's Leadership
Dr Dorel Iosif, MAICD
AUSTRALIA
CEO, Board Director, Founder
Dorel held senior executive roles with PwC, Advisian, KBR and Worley. He started his career in Israel with the Technion Institute of Technology and continued in Melbourne Australia with BHPBilliton and the University of Melbourne. He is also the Managing Partner of Lavaux Global, a global management consulting firm in the area of strategy and operations.
Dr Iosif holds a Ph.D in applied mathematics and engineering from the University of Melbourne and studied Corporate Level Strategy - Executive Program at Harvard Business School.
Dorel is a Member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, former Chairman of the Panel of Experts at the World Future Energy Summit and former non-executive Director of Houston Partnership.
He worked in Australia, USA, Europe and the Middle East.
John Stocco
AUSTRALIA
Board Director, Founder
John is a senior executive and a graduate of the University of Western Australia.
He has an established senior executive track record of operational success in planning, developing and implementation of business strategy with roles at AECOM, SNC Lavalin, SMEC, Hatch and GHD.
John worked across Australia and internationally (Asia, Europe, Africa, North and South America) in operational management, strategy and planning, business development, project and general management, mergers and acquisitions, due diligence, as well as supporting capital development and project financing.
Dina Guirguis
UAE
General Counsel
Dina is a U.S. qualified Egyptian American attorney experienced in legal and policy roles, and has assumed numerous regional positions as in-house counsel for multinationals, managing all corporate legal areas from contracts to compliance.
She has practiced dispute resolution in construction and energy with Squire Patton Boggs in Dubai, and compliance and regulatory law at White & Case in Washington, D.C. She has assumed numerous policy roles in Washington, D.C., including as advocacy director for the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP), and as fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP).
Dina provides legal services to international companies in the Middle East, with a focus on acquisitions, joint venture, commercial and corporate agreements, and legal due diligence.
She has authored numerous policy pieces on political and legal reform in the Middle East, and is certified in International Legislative Drafting by the International Law Institute.
She is professionally fluent in English, Arabic and French.
Robin Mills
UAE
Board Director, Founder
Robin is an economist from the University of Cambridge, UK. He is an entrepreneur and business owner currently the CEO of Qamar Energy.
Robin is an expert on energy strategy and economics, described by Foreign Policy magazine as “one of the energy world’s great minds”. He worked for Shell, concentrating on new business development in the UAE, Qatar, Iraq, Iran and often described as the “Shell expert on Iran”.
Robin is the author of two books, The Myth of the Oil Crisis, which evaluates global long-term oil supply and Capturing Carbon, the first comprehensive overview of carbon capture and storage.
He is the columnist on energy and environmental issues at The National newspaper (Abu Dhabi), and comments widely on energy issues in the media, including Foreign Policy, the Financial Times, The Atlantic, CNN, CNBC Arabiya, BBC, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, Sky News and others.
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Erez Weiner
ISRAEL
Chief Technology Officer
Erez is the Chief Technology Officer and Head of Software Development.
He is the coding brain behind the Cognisium Portal.
Erez is a former Manager with CheckPoint Software, an American-Israeli company and a world leader in cybersecurity.
He is a graduate in Computer Software from Ben Gurion University in Israel.
Maryem El Farsaoui
UAE
Head of Research
Maryem holds a Masters degree in International Relations from the University of Wollongong in Dubai, with a focus on energy security in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region and especially in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Her experience at the Australian Trade and Investment Commission in the Australian Consulate in Dubai provided her with deep knowledge of the business environment in the UAE along with advanced skills in cross-sectoral market research. Her Master’s thesis studied the UAE's 2050 Energy Strategy to increase renewable energy use to 50% in 2050.
She speaks Arabic, French and English fluently.
