Cognota Appoints Beth Gantz as Chief Revenue Officer and James Spere as Chief Product Technology Officer

Tech veterans join Cognota to lead go-to-market strategy and revenue growth and product development for the LearnOps category leader.

TORONTO, CANADA, August 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Cognota, the market leader in Learning Operations (LearnOps^®), today announced two executive appointments as the company accelerates its next phase of growth: Beth Gantz as Chief Revenue Officer & Acting COO, and James Spere as Chief Product Technology Officer. The appointments come as Cognota doubles down on innovation across its next-gen AI-native platform, bringing in proven leadership to drive revenue growth, operational execution, and product development for the LearnOps (learning operations) category it helped to define.

Beth brings more than 20 years of go-to-market leadership in the learning and talent development industry, with a track record of building high-performing teams and driving significant revenue growth at category-defining companies. She has held senior sales and leadership roles at organizations including THINQ Learning Solutions, Skillsoft, KnowledgeAdvisors (later part of CEB and Gartner), and Explorance, where she served as Chief Sales Officer, doubled the size of the go-to-market team spanning sales and customer success, helped drive alignment across the executive team, and played a key role in supporting a funding raise. Across these roles, Beth has consistently scaled go-to-market functions and translated deep domain expertise in learning technology and talent analytics into measurable revenue outcomes.

"As Cognota continues to grow, I'm thrilled to have Beth Gantz stepping into the role of Chief Revenue Officer & Acting COO, and to welcome James Spere as our Chief Product Technology Officer. Together, their leadership will accelerate our investment in Cognota's next-gen platform, ensuring our customers have an even more powerful, intelligent, and cutting-edge solution. This is about bringing the world-class experience our customers deserve as we build the future of enterprise talent and L&D." said Ryan Austin, CEO and Founder of Cognota.

"Joining Cognota feels like coming home. For more than two decades, I've worked alongside learning and talent organizations trying to solve the same problem: how do you actually get visibility into what talent and L&D are doing, and whether it's working, in a way that ties back to business goals. It's a gap I've watched persist at every company I've been part of, and with LearnOps, we finally have the category and the platform to close it. I'm excited to build on what Ryan and the team have started, and help this industry finally solve something it's needed to solve for a long time," said Beth Gantz.

James brings more than two decades of product and engineering leadership across some of the most recognized names in edtech and consumer learning, with a track record of building and scaling platforms that serve millions of learners worldwide. He has held senior product and engineering roles at organizations including D2L, MasterClass, Roadmunk, and, most recently, Introhive. At D2L, James led Core Platform Development for the company's Brightspace learning management system, and at MasterClass he served as Head of Product, B2B, helping extend the platform's premium content model into the enterprise and workplace learning market. Across these roles, James has consistently paired deep technical expertise with product strategy to turn ambitious learning technology visions into scalable, market-ready platforms.

"Learning and development has been the thread running through my entire career, from building platforms that power how millions of people learn to leading product for teams focused on turning content into real capability. I'm excited to join Cognota to help build products that don't just support L&D teams, but actually move the needle for them, giving corporate talent and learning leaders the tools to plan, execute, and prove the impact of their work," said James Spere.

The appointments come shortly after Cognota announced its Series B financing, the acquisition of Learnexus (an on-demand marketplace of L&D specialists), and recent major investment in Cognota’s next-gen AI-Native LearnOps platform to accelerate agentic use-cases and deepen enterprise integrations. With Gantz leading go-to-market strategy and Spere driving product innovation, Cognota is positioned to deepen its work with enterprise learning and talent teams and extend its lead as the category creator in LearnOps.

“Beth Gantz and James Spere represent exactly the kind of leadership and innovation Cognota needs. Their focus will directly accelerate our mission to power LearnOps for all enterprises globally,” said Ryan Austin.

Ryan Austin
Cognota
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