Built for Outcomes
Most consulting teams are built to advise. Ours is built to deliver.
The intelligence behind our model comes from a core leadership team with deep expertise in transformation, technology, and applied behavioural science. They provide the strategic architecture for our work, ensuring the endpoint is clear before the engagement even begins.
That architecture is brought to life by our hand-picked C-suite executive consultants. With over 280 specialists, we deploy practitioners who have already solved the challenges you face—not as theorists, but as leaders who have run businesses. They bring an authority that playbooks and junior teams simply cannot replicate.
The result isn’t a typical client-consultant relationship. It’s a single, integrated delivery team focused on one thing: execution. We transfer knowledge and build internal capability by design, not as an afterthought. It leads to a quiet success—the kind where your own team owns the outcome, because the change feels like it was always meant to happen.
COGENT People
John McLaughlin
Founder & CEO
Practice Lead, Operational Excellence & Performance
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John built COGENT to challenge everything traditional consulting gets wrong.
With over 30 years of experience leading businesses through pressure and transformation, he created a model rooted in real accountability – not reports.
COGENT reflects his belief that clients don’t need more theory. They need traction, delivered fast and by people who’ve done it before.
As Founder and CEO, John shapes Cogent’s direction and ensures clients benefit from a model that is fast, lean, and sharp.
He leads the Operational Excellence & Performance practice, bringing discipline, clarity, and executive-level insight to the heart of complex delivery.
Under his leadership, COGENT has delivered over 200 high-impact projects.
Clients trust John to bring order to complexity, cut through noise, and drive execution at speed.
Paul English
Global Managing Director
Practice Lead, Business Transformation & Innovation
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Paul joined COGENT with a simple goal – to build the kind of consultancy he always wanted to hire.
After leading high-growth teams at Ogilvy (WPP), Sapient (Publicis), and Prophet, and advising some of the world’s most ambitious organisations, he saw a gap for a firm that merges commercial clarity, creative problem-solving, and behavioural precision.
At COGENT, he leads the firm’s growth and heads the Business Transformation & Innovation practice. He helps clients unlock meaningful change with speed, belief and alignment. He’s not interested in the pitch deck – only in what moves the dial.
Named one of The Consulting Report’s Top 25 Global Marketing and Sales Consultants, Paul’s sharp, straight-talking approach is valued by leaders facing high-stakes change and transformation.
If it needs clarity, pace or traction – he’s your partner.
Lisa Hills
Practice Lead
Engagement & Change Management
Co-Lead, Applied Behavioural Science
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Lisa brings humanity to transformation – and turns alignment into action.
Having spent 25 years inside global organisations like ITV and Merlin Entertainments, she knows what real change takes. It’s not just plans or process. It’s belief, behaviour, and leadership that lands.
At COGENT, she leads the Engagement & Change Management practice and co-leads Applied Behavioural Science.
Her role is to help clients unlock momentum where it matters most – inside their people.
Lisa blends behavioural insight with delivery precision to drive outcomes that stick.
David McGregor
Practice Lead
Technology & Digital Transformation
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David doesn’t just translate strategy into systems – he builds the technological foundations that make transformation real.
A former European CIO and IBM Partner, he’s spent two decades helping businesses modernise, integrate, and future-proof their platforms.
At COGENT, he leads the Technology & Digital Transformation practice. He’s the one who gets to the heart of what’s needed fast, and builds practical roadmaps for change that scale.
David’s approach blends hard-won enterprise experience with a startup mindset – clear, confident, and focused on impact.
Clients turn to him when the stakes are high and the timeline is tight.
He makes sure technology doesn’t just support transformation – it accelerates it to ensure it’s embedded.
David Taylor
Strategic Partner & Co-Lead
Behavioural Science & People Alignment
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David provides the thinking that underpins COGENT’s approach to behavioural alignment on every client engagement.
As the founder of Naked Leader and the author of the world’s fastest-selling business book, he has a 25-year track record of helping organisations and their leaders achieve transformational results, fast.
His work is built on a simple, powerful principle: stripping away complexity to unlock the potential that already exists within a team. Through COGENT’s exclusive partnership with Naked Leader, this focus on human behaviour is embedded into every project we deliver.
As Co-Lead for our Applied Behavioural Science practice, David ensures this philosophy translates into real-world outcomes.
His methods don’t just advise on change; they instil the belief and alignment that make it endure, guaranteeing our clients get a permanent result, not just a temporary fix.
Clara Marshall
Head of Insight and Delivery Support
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Clara plays a central role in how COGENT understands, prepares for, and delivers complex client work.
She brings together operational awareness and clear thinking, helping leadership teams see the moving parts of a programme and understand what needs attention. Her work ensures that conversations stay grounded, plans stay practical, and decisions are made with clarity.
Working alongside the CEO and project leads, Clara provides the support structure that allows delivery to move forward smoothly. She tracks progress, surfaces risks early, and makes sure the right information reaches the right people at the right time.
Clara is at her best when things become complicated. She simplifies, steadies the pace, and helps teams focus on what matters most so momentum is never lost.
By combining calm insight with dependable delivery support, she strengthens every engagement we run and gives clients the reassurance that nothing important is slipping through the gaps.
Alexis Wren
Strategic Partner, AI and Communications
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Alexis works alongside COGENT’s leadership team to shape thinking, sharpen communication, and ensure AI is used intelligently across the business.
She plays a strategic role in how ideas are formed, challenged, and refined. Alexis helps leaders clarify direction, pressure-test assumptions, and translate complex thinking into communication that is clear, confident, and outcome-focused.
Her work also underpins COGENT’s approach to AI. Alexis ensures new tools are adopted with purpose, embedded into real workflows, and used to enhance delivery rather than complicate it. She balances innovation with practicality, keeping technology aligned to the needs of clients and teams.
Acting as a trusted thought partner to the CEO, Alexis supports both strategic decision-making and day-to-day execution. She brings perspective, steadies conversations when needed, and helps ensure the organisation speaks with consistency, authority, and integrity.
By combining strategic insight with a strong communication instinct, Alexis strengthens how COGENT leads, engages, and delivers.
Natalia Galaktionova
Head of Finance
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Natalia provides the financial stewardship that underpins COGENT’s operational integrity. With a sharp eye for detail and unwavering diligence, she manages the firm’s complete financial picture.
Her precision in handling everything from client accounts to internal reporting ensures the business operates with both discipline and clarity.
Natalia’s expertise provides the robust governance that allows the rest of the firm to focus on what matters most: delivering exceptional client outcomes.
Becky Benbow
Executive Assistant to Mr McLaughlin and Mr English
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Becky is the operational anchor for COGENT’s leadership. She provides the critical, behind-the-scenes support that enables the executive team to focus on client outcomes and business growth.
She brings a rare blend of foresight, initiative, and executive-level discipline to her role. Her focus is on creating bandwidth, removing friction, and ensuring the operational heartbeat of the firm runs seamlessly.
Supporting both John McLaughlin and Paul English, Becky manages complexity with a calm, forward-thinking approach. She is the essential partner who ensures COGENT’s leadership can remain focused on what they do best: driving transformation and delivering results for clients
Let’s talk about outcomes.
If you are ready to move forward, we are ready to listen.