Suggestions
Girish Rishi
CEO
Girish Rishi is a prominent business leader currently serving as the Chair of the Board of Directors at CoreTrust, a commercial group purchasing organization, since November 2022. In addition to his role at CoreTrust, he is also the CEO of Cognite, an industrial software company, a position he has held since April 2022. Rishi's leadership at Cognite focuses on leveraging data and AI to drive innovation in the energy and industrial sectors.15
Career Background
Rishi has an extensive background in executive roles across various technology and software companies. Before joining Cognite, he was the CEO of Blue Yonder, where he led significant advancements in supply chain management solutions from January 2017 to February 2022. His prior experience includes leadership positions at Tyco, Motorola, and Symbol Technologies, where he contributed to product development and market strategies.235
Education and Recognition
Girish Rishi has been recognized for his leadership capabilities, earning accolades such as the Leader of the Year award from Arizona Capitol Times in 2020. He is also noted for his contributions to fostering inclusive work environments and driving organizational growth through innovative strategies.34
Current Focus
As Chair of CoreTrust, Rishi emphasizes enhancing operational efficiencies and cost savings for member companies through strategic partnerships and effective negotiation strategies. His vision aligns with CoreTrust's mission to support nearly 3,000 members in achieving sustainable savings by utilizing collective purchasing power.1
Highlights
If you are a Junior or Senior at university/college anywhere or in the Houston area, you should consider attending Cognite's user conference on October 14-15 in Houston. It will expose you to compelling domains around Data, AI, industrial use cases in energy and manufacturing. You will see customers and partners in action. Write to someone at Cognite you can access or write to me. Your note to us would determine if you get an invite. You could be a chemical engineering or computer science or economics or music major--does not matter, your curiosity and passion matters. We will waive the fees and include all sessions and meals. Lodging, yours to deal with. We will even be open to writing a letter on your behalf post attendance. Heck...one of the Cognite managers may even extend you a job offer! No beer if you are not 21 at the time of attendance. Come and join us as we make a positive impact on the world.
I want to go to a software vendor's user conference as badly as I want another covid booster shot or a hangover. Yes that badly. I refuse to go to any user conferences. None. Zero. Nada. In the 90s, an ERP company formatted a user conference and then all user conferences became the same. They are all the same. Welcome reception, then next morning the software vendor talks about themselves and themselves and themselves at general session, and then they squeeze in a customer when talking about themselves. And then they stand up and share how good they have been doing their job over the last year in writing new code. User conferences have become software vendor sales conferences. Seriously. Then the next evening there is an "ecosystem trade show," where every partner has to talk about how good the hosting software vendor is. Then the last night a rock concert. The actual "user," nowhere to be found. Oh yes... there is one different user conference, where they bring Monks in to pray. Go figure! At Cognite we are going back to an actual freakin user conference this October in Houston. It will be a user conference led, directed and held by customers. The agenda approved by our Customer Advisory Board. Cognite will play an assist role. Industrial AI is the biggest potential that industrial companies have come across since the industrial revolution. It is too mission critical, too important to not be focused on the actual user and the actual value generation for customers. Cognite shall do it our way. Yes. Shelley Nall
