COHERENT - Key Persons
Anthony Ford is the Chief Financial Officer at Coherent. He is responsible for the financial planning, reporting and smooth cash management of the company.
Anthony has experience in the banking, insurance, broking and consulting industries across Africa, Australia and Asia. He has held treasury and finance executive roles at Macquarie Bank, Barclays and most recently as Head of Treasury and Transformation at CLSA. He began his career in the insurance industry with the Hollard Group and then the Commonwealth Bank (CommInsure).
Coherent's market leading technology and attitude to efficiency extends across all our operations and finances. Anthony encourages simplicity and flexibility, ensuring that the business remains agile to growth while adding value to our clients and investors.
Anthony is an actuary and a member of the Actuaries Institute of Australia.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, Actuarial
- Managing Director, Head of Actuarial
Bob brings industry-leading actuarial and consulting expertise to Coherent's product suite and client engagements. His team supports the seamless integration of our products into client systems.
Bob's career started as a fresh-faced actuarial trainee in Willis Towers Watson, leading engagements with some of the largest clients across many Asian markets. He left as the Head of the Asia Pacific region. Bob then embarked on the start-up life at CXA Group, building the Hong Kong business of one of Asia's most prominent healthtech companies.
Throughout his career, Bob has never lost his enthusiasm for growing teams and businesses. Most of all, Bob is passionate about building trusted relationships with clients to help them do the same.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, Head of Solutions
Daniel is our Head of Solutions at Coherent. He oversees the development of Coherent's innovative product suite.
With a background in management consulting at EY, Daniel became intrigued by the operational and technological inefficiencies in the insurance industry. He started solving these deep-rooted issues when he joined QBE, where he ran IT and business transformation programmes at his last role as Head of Program Delivery for Asia Pacific and Latin America.
Over the past 10 years working across more than 25 countries, Daniel has recognised the systemic challenges facing insurers. Building on this knowledge, he has been able to identify and implement technology solutions that change preconceptions and drive positive change.
Throughout his career, Daniel has heard people say "but we've always done it that way". His mantra is to refuse to accept that things should stay the way they are!
Helen is Coherent's Chief Operating Officer, leading operations and shared services functions globally.
Helen is a senior technology and transformation executive with experience leading global teams in insurance, reinsurance, broking and technology consulting companies across more than 30 countries in Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, Europe & Australasia.
Helen started her career at Accenture where she delivered on a range of strategic, digital and system integration programs for insurance and banking clients. She then joined QBE Insurance where she was Chief Information Officer for Asia Pacific and Latin America responsible for QBE's digital, technology, operational transformation and program delivery functions across 23 markets. Most recently, she was Executive Managing Director at Aon, responsible for analytics software and product development within the reinsurance division globally.
Helen is driven by the opportunity that exists to significantly transform the insurance industry through the use of smart technology and data intelligence. She is excited by the possibilities that Coherent's products provide for re-imagining all aspects of the insurance value chain and solving the challenges she has seen insurers and their customers face throughout her career.
Job Titles:
- Chief of Staff
- Managing Director
Isabel Wendleken is Managing Director and Chief of Staff to the Global CEO. Isabel works alongside CEO John Brisco and the Coherent executive team to develop corporate strategy, manage investor relations and strategic initiatives, launch and scale new cross-functional programs, as well as develop thought leadership.
Isabel joined Coherent in February 2020 to lead Customer Success, where she first established the team that delivered Coherent enterprise product offerings across the globe. She built, scaled, and trained a high performing global delivery and advisory team focused on deploying Coherent solutions across international markets. She was also integral to building out Coherent's Customer and Partner education portals and feedback processes.
Prior to Coherent, Isabel held senior management positions at Deloitte Consulting in New York, PwC across APAC, and Capco Digital in Hong Kong. She has advised Fortune 500 global banking, insurance, and media clients on strategic growth and operational improvement initiatives. She is an avid writer of business and leadership articles, with some pieces featured in the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. Isabel received her MBA with honors in Finance and Marketing from Fordham Graduate School of Business, US and a BA of Communications from Ateneo de Manila University, in the Philippines.
Job Titles:
- Head of Marketing and Social Growth
At Coherent, Jasmine champions the message that we are here to cut through complexity and help our customers be more competitive, productive and decisive.
Jasmine began her career in creative agencies, where she led branding, digital and retail programmes across Hong Kong, London and Sydney for clients including Intel, Swire Properties and CommBank. Jasmine's agency experience led her to HSBC in Hong Kong, where she marketed HSBC's first digital wallet, PayMe.
In her time at HSBC, Jasmine was inspired by the role that technology played in delivering real value to customers through better experiences. She brings this insight and passion to her work at Coherent.
John is the leader and co-founder of Coherent. Every day, he works with teams, customers and partners across the world to help unleash business logic into APIs via Coherent's world-class and unique software.
His movement into entrepreneurship arose from a successful executive career within some of the world's largest Financial services companies, where he became fascinated around how much business logic was being created in Microsoft Excel to support product planning, processes and financial reporting/planning to enable such businesses to operate. However, the ‘a-ha' moment he experienced was the challenge, timeline and high cost challenges that were faced within business around translating this logic into the systems that enterprises use on a daily basis.
John and his team created Coherent Spark, the world's leading logic-as-a-service platform that enables a business or user to turn spreadsheets into enterprise-grade APIs and code instantly. In short, he is proud to have created software ‘purple cow'…..something truly remarkable that creates instant value for anyone, anywhere using the Coherent platform.
Kate is the Chief People Officer at Coherent overseeing the firm's business operations - including HR, Finance, Legal, PMO and Procurement.
Kate's career in insurance started 10 years ago at QBE Insurance in Strategy & Technology. She has a diverse background working in senior leadership roles in Hong Kong and Sydney in Technology, HR, Communications and Operations. Her career has been marked by building high performing teams, delivering agile solutions to operational problems. Prior to joining Coherent, Kate was at QBE Global Head Office as Global Head of Business Management - People & Communications and at QBE Latin America and Asia as Head of IT Performance & Governance.
Kate has a passion for strategic planning, operational effectiveness and implementing governance to monitor achievement of strategic plans and operational performance.
Mukkul Dasgupta is the Chief Platform Officer at Coherent. He is responsible for helping develop embedded insurance products, partnerships, and ecosystems to ensure that insurance can serve the needs of the majority of people in relevant and personalised ways.
Job Titles:
- Head of Design and Experience
Nancy leads a dynamic and talented team of UX/UI designers, with the aim of keeping the customer at the heart of all Coherent's products, providing the best user experience to simplify complex problems.
Nancy's career started in the advertising industry as an art director working with various clients in FMCG, automotive, financial and not-for-profit industries. Applying her interest in psychology and design, she has combined this knowledge to deliver many successful campaigns.
After moving to Hong Kong, Nancy changed her career path to focus more on user experience, widening her skillset and experience to the digital medium. Since then, she has helped Coherent and its clients understand more about their customers' needs and design products accordingly, enabling them to achieve their goals.
Job Titles:
- Chief Technology Officer
- Senior Transformation Executive
Peter helps Coherent's insurance clients identify transformation opportunities - from reforming distribution structures and commission systems, to improving customer engagement through our product suite.
Peter is a senior transformation executive with 25+ years of technology experience in global insurance companies across Asia Pacific, North America and Europe. Prior to joining Coherent he was Regional CTO at AXA Asia. Throughout his career, Peter has been instrumental in navigating changing markets, leading large-scale programs, and expanding technical capabilities to deliver business results.
Peter is driven by the role that technology and insights can play in bridging gaps between insurers and their customers.
Drawing on his extensive experience of the Asian insurance market, Richard leads Coherent's commercial efforts across the Group.
After a decade in senior transformation roles in ANZ Banking Group (Australia), Richard made the switch to Asia and the insurance industry, working in Japan with ING Life, then taking a regional role with AIA in Hong Kong. From there, Richard stepped up into a COO role at AIA to transform operations in the Philippines. Then finally on to NN Life based out of the Hague in a strategy role.
At Coherent, Richard enjoys being in the unique position of working in a team comprising former C-suite executives, actuaries and developers. Leveraging the strength of this diversity, Richard and the team provide tailored solutions to clients and help drive tangible business results.
Sakura Kawakami is Coherent's CEO, Japan, leading our business's growth in the Japanese market and helping clients accelerate digital innovations and deliver superior customer experiences.
Having worked in both the Fortune 100 financial institutions and a HealthTech & InsurTech company, Sakura brings unique insight and experience to Coherent. Sakura has over 10 years of business management experience at Lehman Brothers, Nomura Securities, Citi, and over 5 years at MetLife Japan, where she held a position managing a product development team responsible for launching new insurance products in the market.
Before joining Coherent, Sakura was heading dacadoo Japan, a startup company based in Zurich, Switzerland, where she built a strong growth footprint. The company also received Plug and Play Japan International Startup Award in 2021. Sakura believes that Japan is at the crossroads of big digital transformation, and our innovative technology solutions will help clients ride the wave of change and become more successful.
Job Titles:
- CEO, USA
- Chief Executive Officer, USA, Lea
Todd Buchanan is Coherent's Chief Executive Officer, USA, leading the growth of our innovative technology solutions in the insurance and investment markets across the United States.
Having managed large teams to drive company-wide results in the insurance industry for 24 years, Todd brings an abundance of experience to Coherent. Previously as an executive in AIG's Life and Retirement Division, Todd was responsible for a team of 500 employees, and was named Manager of the Year 9 times. Todd also held the position of Senior Vice President, Market Management and Strategy, for a large life insurance subsidiary within AIG. Prior to entering the insurance industry, Todd served as a Captain in the US Army.
Todd's management and distribution experience, coupled with his strategy development and execution expertise, provide Coherent with a unique knowledge of the US insurance market. Todd believes technology is critical in helping to speed up the process of ensuring every customer has access to the best insurance products and services to protect their families and futures.