Industry veterans Beth Gantz and James Spere have joined Cognota to head up go-to-market execution, revenue expansion, and product innovation for the frontrunner in LearnOps.
Today, Cognota—the leading provider of Learning Operations (LearnOps®)—announced two new executive hires as it enters an accelerated growth phase: Beth Gantz takes on the role of Chief Revenue Officer & Acting COO, while James Spere becomes Chief Product Technology Officer. These moves come as the company intensifies its focus on innovation within its next-generation AI-native platform, enlisting experienced leaders to fuel revenue growth, operational excellence, and product creation for the LearnOps category it originally established.
Beth Gantz brings over two decades of experience in go-to-market leadership within the learning and talent development sector. She has a proven history of assembling high-performing teams and generating substantial revenue growth at companies that have defined their categories. Her previous senior sales and leadership positions include roles at THINQ Learning Solutions, Skillsoft, KnowledgeAdvisors (later acquired by CEB and Gartner), and Explorance. At Explorance, she served as Chief Sales Officer, where she doubled the go-to-market team—spanning sales and customer success—fostered executive alignment, and contributed to a successful fundraising effort. Throughout her career, Beth has consistently expanded go-to-market operations and turned her deep understanding of learning technology and talent analytics into concrete revenue results.
“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 Spere has over two decades of product and engineering leadership at some of the most renowned names in edtech and consumer learning. He has a track record of building and scaling platforms that serve millions of learners worldwide. His senior roles have included positions at D2L, MasterClass, Roadmunk, and most recently, Introhive. At D2L, he led Core Platform Development for the Brightspace learning management system. At MasterClass, he served as Head of Product, B2B, extending 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.
These executive appointments follow closely on the heels of Cognota's Series B financing announcement, its acquisition of Learnexus—an on-demand marketplace for L&D specialists—and a significant recent investment in its next-generation AI-native LearnOps platform, aimed at accelerating agentic use cases and strengthening enterprise integrations. With Gantz heading go-to-market strategy and Spere steering product innovation, Cognota is well-positioned to expand its work with enterprise learning and talent organizations and maintain its lead as the originator of the LearnOps category.
“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
+1 800-341-2823
email us here
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn
