Leadership Teams

Ken Billard

Ken Billard is the Chief Commercial Officer for Cogstate, where he develops and executes strategies focused on expanding the adoption of Cogstate solutions to optimize the measurement of cognition and other clinical outcome assessments in pharmaceutical clinical trials.

Ken manages the global sales organization at Cogstate and brings a 30-year track record leading high-performing commercial teams across eClinical, healthcare and technology businesses. Under Ken’s leadership, Cogstate delivers a consultative and customer-focused sales culture based on accountability, integrity, trust and value.

Prior to joining Cogstate, Ken served as Vice President of Business Development and Global Strategic Partnerships at CRF Health (now part of Signant Health), and has held various global leadership roles with invivodata, McKessonHBOC, and CB Technologies.

Rachel Colite

Rachel Colite leads the Clinical Trials division at Cogstate, overseeing strategy and delivery across commercial sales and operations. During her 9-year tenure at Cogstate, Rachel has held roles of increased responsibility, most recently leading the expansion of the company’s decentralized trials solutions into global late-stage Alzheimer’s disease programs. Rachel has served Cogstate in diverse roles from strategic initiatives to people & culture and brings more than 16 years of contract research organization experience, including positions at ICON plc (Nasdaq: ICLR) in corporate marketing.

Kristi Geddes

Kristi Geddes is Cogstate’s General Counsel and Company Secretary. In this role, Kristi acts as principal counsel and advisor to senior leadership and the Board of Directors. She has global responsibility for the company’s legal, contracting, governance and compliance activities.

Prior to joining Cogstate, Kristi was Special Counsel in MinterEllison’s Health and Life Sciences team, with a practice focused on the research, life sciences and biotechnology sector, and was previously In House Counsel at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. She has 20 years’ legal experience in private practice and in-house roles, and has undergraduate and post graduate qualifications across law, health and psychological science.

Sara Giesen

Sara Giesen is the Chief People Officer for Cogstate, responsible for setting the People Strategy, leading the global HR team, building a high performing organization and an inclusive collaborative culture where people and results thrive. Sara is a leader in organisation transformation and brings a sharp customer and external focus to the business, finding creative ways to solve problems and unlock potential. Sara is passionate about putting the human in Human Resources and building forward thinking ways of working.

With over 25 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical and automotive sectors, Sara is a strategic leader with deep expertise in all facets of human resources and a strong track record of execution. She is recognised for her collaborative approach in working with stakeholders to deliver ambitious outcomes at local, regional and global levels.

Sara holds an Masters of Business – Human Resources from Swinburne University and is an accredited Executive coach.

Brad O’Connor

Brad O’Connor has been Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Cogstate Limited since December 2005. He has responsibility for Cogstate’s overall strategic direction and day-to-day operations as well as development of expansion opportunities outside of the core clinical trials business.

Prior to taking the position of CEO at Cogstate, Mr O’Connor joined Cogstate as Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary in May 2004. Prior to that, he held senior positions at Spherion Group, Australian Wine Exchange and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mr O’Connor is a chartered accountant who holds a Bachelor of Business degree.

Other directorships and interests:

• Cogstate Inc
• Cogstate Health Inc
• Cogstate Healthcare LLC
• Cogstate Sports Pty Ltd

Kaycee Sink, MD, MAS

Dr. Kaycee Sink is the Chief Medical Officer at Cogstate where she leads the support of clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, including the advancement of new innovations to improve data quality and trial efficiency for more accurate conclusive studies. Dr. Sink is board certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine with over 20 years of experience in clinical care and research in neurodegenerative disorders.

Prior to joining Cogstate, Dr. Sink worked at Genentech where she was Principal Medical Director in Neurodegeneration with leadership roles in the late-stage development of several molecules being studied for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders as well as digital applications for the same. She joined Genentech in 2017 after 13 years on faculty at Wake Forest School of Medicine, where she rose to tenured Full Professor of Medicine, Neurology, and Public Health Sciences. At Wake Forest School of Medicine, Kaycee served as interim Chief of Geriatrics, the Director of the Memory Assessment Clinic, and was the PI of the Clinical Core for the NIH funded Alzheimer’s Disease Center as well as an investigator/PI on multiple NIH and industry sponsored clinical trials in aging and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Sink obtained her medical degree at the University of CA, San Francisco, and subsequently trained in internal medicine followed by clinical and research fellowships in geriatrics, also at UCSF. She continues to see patients and teach in the Memory Assessment Clinic as adjunct faculty at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston Salem, NC.

Pamela Ventola, PhD

Dr. Ventola is Chief Science Officer at Cogstate, an Associate Professor at the Yale Child Study Center, and a licensed clinical neuropsychologist. Dr. Ventola leads Cogstate’s science team providing Cogstate customers with strategic oversight and expert guidance throughout all stages of their study planning and execution – from endpoint selection, rater training and strategic monitoring, to final statistical analysis.

Dr. Ventola received her Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology from the University of Connecticut and completed her clinical training and Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Yale University School of Medicine. She serves on the editorial review board of multiple academic journals and has authored numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and scientific presentations.

Darren Watson

Darren Watson is Chief Financial Officer for Cogstate, responsible for the company’s financial strategy, driving business growth and ensuring proper governance and compliance. Mr. Watson leads all aspects of finance operations globally including corporate accounting, financial planning and analysis, internal audit, tax, insurance, and procurement. Mr. Watson is an experienced business executive with over 20 years working in the technology sector across a number of international locations.

Prior to joining Cogstate, Mr. Watson held roles at IBM across finance, operations and strategy roles, most recently as Chief Operating Officer, IBM A/NZ Global Technology Services. His most recent role followed stints in Shanghai, China working in strategy for the IBM Growth Markets Head Office, then in Singapore as the CFO for the IBM GTS Asia Pacific business covering A/NZ, ASEAN, India/South Asia, China and South Korea.

Mr. Watson graduated from Bendigo College of Advanced Education with a Bachelor of Business before joining KPMG and completing his Chartered Accountant qualification.