Our Leadership Team
We are leaders with a common vision. We understand the vital role of technology-enabled and data-intelligent products. We continue to build multidisciplinary teams of product designers, technologists, and industry experts to transform your business and reimagine the way we work with data.
Our team

Joel Lim
CEO, Asia
Global executive at Coherent focused on scaling out the company’s offerings across sectors, applying its advanced technologies to solutions that drive high-value outcomes for distinct client/sector issues and market opportunities. Leading development of platform businesses, managed services and software-as-a-service solutions in market, and leveraging emerging technologies to develop new business models and cross sector convergence.
Working with C-level executives at multinational companies in Financial Services, Joel’s passion has been in bringing together business imperatives with digital strategy and execution, leveraging data and technology to build scaled platform businesses, and effectively deploy emerging technologies to drive accelerated performance and growth.

Stephen Pemberton
CEO Europe
Steve is Coherent’s Chief Executive Officer for Europe. Working closely with clients across Capital Markets and other industries, he is responsible for enabling them to address their regulatory, compliance and end to end workflow challenges by accelerating delivery of innovative technology solutions.
Steve brings over 25 years of Capital Markets expertise and leadership across Operations, Sales, Account Management and Product Management and spent the last 18 years in Hong & Singapore. He was most recently Global Head of Product for HSBC’s Direct Custody & Clearing business where he was responsible for the strategy, governance and delivery of HSBC’s suite of products & solutions to the largest Investment Banks, Broker Dealers & Financial Market Infrastructures globally.
Prior to joining HSBC, Steve led the strategic Client Account Management team across Asia for IHS Markit. He also previously led Standard Chartered’s Banks, Broker Dealers, Clearing & Collateral Product team globally and UBS’s APAC regional Clearing & Securities Operations teams.

Robert Showers
Chief Revenue Officer
Before joining us, Robert led sales and relationship management for Alternative Asset Managers in the Americas at BNP Paribas Securities Services where he drove business strategy and product sales across the full suite of BNPs infrastructure solutions platform. He also spent time at SS&C, a $15 billion technology and services company focused on the Pension Fund and Asset Management sectors. Prior to this, he was Chief Operating Officer for Peak Ridge Capital Group, a Private Equity, where he led the launch of a new Broker Dealer platform. He also spent several years in key roles at UBS and at Barclays capital.

John Brisco
CEO & Co-founder
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.

Helen Attenborough
CEO, Australia + NZ
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.

Peter Roschke
Chief Technology Officer
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.

Anthony Ford
Chief Financial Officer
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.

Joel Lim
CEO, Asia
Global executive at Coherent focused on scaling out the company’s offerings across sectors, applying its advanced technologies to solutions that drive high-value outcomes for distinct client/sector issues and market opportunities. Leading development of platform businesses, managed services and software-as-a-service solutions in market, and leveraging emerging technologies to develop new business models and cross sector convergence.
Working with C-level executives at multinational companies in Financial Services, Joel’s passion has been in bringing together business imperatives with digital strategy and execution, leveraging data and technology to build scaled platform businesses, and effectively deploy emerging technologies to drive accelerated performance and growth.

Stephen Pemberton
CEO Europe
Steve is Coherent’s Chief Executive Officer for Europe. Working closely with clients across Capital Markets and other industries, he is responsible for enabling them to address their regulatory, compliance and end to end workflow challenges by accelerating delivery of innovative technology solutions.
Steve brings over 25 years of Capital Markets expertise and leadership across Operations, Sales, Account Management and Product Management and spent the last 18 years in Hong & Singapore. He was most recently Global Head of Product for HSBC’s Direct Custody & Clearing business where he was responsible for the strategy, governance and delivery of HSBC’s suite of products & solutions to the largest Investment Banks, Broker Dealers & Financial Market Infrastructures globally.
Prior to joining HSBC, Steve led the strategic Client Account Management team across Asia for IHS Markit. He also previously led Standard Chartered’s Banks, Broker Dealers, Clearing & Collateral Product team globally and UBS’s APAC regional Clearing & Securities Operations teams.

Robert Showers
Chief Revenue Officer
Before joining us, Robert led sales and relationship management for Alternative Asset Managers in the Americas at BNP Paribas Securities Services where he drove business strategy and product sales across the full suite of BNPs infrastructure solutions platform. He also spent time at SS&C, a $15 billion technology and services company focused on the Pension Fund and Asset Management sectors. Prior to this, he was Chief Operating Officer for Peak Ridge Capital Group, a Private Equity, where he led the launch of a new Broker Dealer platform. He also spent several years in key roles at UBS and at Barclays capital.

John Brisco
CEO & Co-founder
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.

Helen Attenborough
CEO, Australia + NZ
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.

Peter Roschke
Chief Technology Officer
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.

Anthony Ford
Chief Financial Officer
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.

Steve Man
Chief Platform Officer
Stephen spent his career in Financial Market Technology, working at Royal Bank of Canada, Scotia Capital and, most recently, HSBC where he was a Managing Director, Chief Information Officer for Securities Services. His area of product concentration has been in Capital Markets with experience across the spectrum of Sales, Trading, Middle Office, Post Trade services. From a technology perspective, he is passionate about the power of technology to invoke meaningful change to areas like Financial Services, where inefficiencies are evident and there’s management willpower, but regulations and structures limit their ability to change. In his words he “joined Coherent to accelerate this change with our Financial Services and Implementation partners. I truly believe we have the necessary ingredients to turbo-charge Financial Services transformation.

Rob Ross
Chief Customer Officer
Robert brings to Coherent more than twenty years of experience as a financial services technology leader, building fully digital, cloud-based experiences and platforms from the ground-up for startups and growing companies. Previous roles include chief information officer at Vault Insurance and chief technology officer at Singapore Life, where he crafted the insurance provider’s digital experience from its inception. Ross also has experience architecting and developing large scale applications, building, and managing global teams and expanding the capabilities of technology and operations at companies including Citi, Microsoft, Allied World Assurance Company, and Axis Capital. Robert holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Northern Illinois where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Kate Fletcher
Chief People Officer
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
Chief Product Officer
Mukkul Dasgupta is the Chief Product Officer at Coherent. He is responsible for leading the Product Management related teams, and defining for product vision, strategy, roadmap and delivery.
Mukkul brings 20 years of experience leading global teams at top-tier technology and management consulting firms in APAC, USA, and Europe. Mukkul began his career at Microsoft building developer-focused platforms for consumer and business applications. Following an MBA at INSEAD, he joined Bain & Company advising executives in insurance, banking, technology, and consumer products industries. Mukkul has also led the Analytics team for LinkedIn Marketing Solutions in APAC, and most recently helped build new strategic alliances at SAP.
Mukkul is passionate about enabling companies to exponentially accelerate their digital initiatives by reimagining how business and IT teams work to build software. Coherent’s no-code platform empowers 750M+ Excel users globally to make changes to their company’s software/systems as quickly as updating their Excel files. This enables them to delight their end customers within days vs. months for traditional software development cycles that are bottlenecked by scarce availability of developers.

Andrew Hoerner
Chief Marketing Officer
Andrew has run marketing, product marketing and PR at global public companies as well as fast growth startups including one unicorn, one double unicorn and an IPO. His passion is to connect customers and users with innovative technologies that improve work and life. Most recently, Andrew grew the global marketing team at Symphony, the largest connected community of financial services professionals as it scaled from $35M to $100M ARR and acquired two companies and reached 500,000 users. Prior, he headed the marketing team at FS-ISAC, a threat intelligence sharing organization, during its growth from 2000 to 7000 members across 44 countries and helped launch and spin out its high growth, award-winning Soltra SaaS division. Earlier, he ran product marketing for several emerging and high profile products at McAfee during sequential acquisitions culminating in the acquisition by Intel for $7.7B. He frequently advises startups and also provides pro bono marketing to women-owned businesses.

Sakura Kawakami
CEO, Japan
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.

Richard Barbarino
Global Head of Sales Engineering
Prior to joining Coherent, Rich led Presales at two enterprise software companies, managing geographically dispersed teams driving ARR, innovation, scale, and global expansion. Most recently, as Senior Vice President – Engineering, Rich was responsible for a multi-disciplinary team at Duck Creek Technologies consisting of product, engineering, and presales. Prior, he was Practice Head – Banking, Financial Services, & Insurance at Wipro.
He is a mission-driven, multifaceted, inventive, and results driven executive with more than 20 years of progressive experience designing, developing, and implementing applications in ever-evolving complex technology environments. A proud veteran, he served as a Nuclear Engineer in the U.S. Navy.

Steve Man
Chief Platform Officer
Stephen spent his career in Financial Market Technology, working at Royal Bank of Canada, Scotia Capital and, most recently, HSBC where he was a Managing Director, Chief Information Officer for Securities Services. His area of product concentration has been in Capital Markets with experience across the spectrum of Sales, Trading, Middle Office, Post Trade services. From a technology perspective, he is passionate about the power of technology to invoke meaningful change to areas like Financial Services, where inefficiencies are evident and there’s management willpower, but regulations and structures limit their ability to change. In his words he “joined Coherent to accelerate this change with our Financial Services and Implementation partners. I truly believe we have the necessary ingredients to turbo-charge Financial Services transformation.

Rob Ross
Chief Customer Officer
Robert brings to Coherent more than twenty years of experience as a financial services technology leader, building fully digital, cloud-based experiences and platforms from the ground-up for startups and growing companies. Previous roles include chief information officer at Vault Insurance and chief technology officer at Singapore Life, where he crafted the insurance provider’s digital experience from its inception. Ross also has experience architecting and developing large scale applications, building, and managing global teams and expanding the capabilities of technology and operations at companies including Citi, Microsoft, Allied World Assurance Company, and Axis Capital. Robert holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Northern Illinois where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Kate Fletcher
Chief People Officer
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
Chief Product Officer
Mukkul Dasgupta is the Chief Product Officer at Coherent. He is responsible for leading the Product Management related teams, and defining for product vision, strategy, roadmap and delivery.
Mukkul brings 20 years of experience leading global teams at top-tier technology and management consulting firms in APAC, USA, and Europe. Mukkul began his career at Microsoft building developer-focused platforms for consumer and business applications. Following an MBA at INSEAD, he joined Bain & Company advising executives in insurance, banking, technology, and consumer products industries. Mukkul has also led the Analytics team for LinkedIn Marketing Solutions in APAC, and most recently helped build new strategic alliances at SAP.
Mukkul is passionate about enabling companies to exponentially accelerate their digital initiatives by reimagining how business and IT teams work to build software. Coherent’s no-code platform empowers 750M+ Excel users globally to make changes to their company’s software/systems as quickly as updating their Excel files. This enables them to delight their end customers within days vs. months for traditional software development cycles that are bottlenecked by scarce availability of developers.

Andrew Hoerner
Chief Marketing Officer
Andrew has run marketing, product marketing and PR at global public companies as well as fast growth startups including one unicorn, one double unicorn and an IPO. His passion is to connect customers and users with innovative technologies that improve work and life. Most recently, Andrew grew the global marketing team at Symphony, the largest connected community of financial services professionals as it scaled from $35M to $100M ARR and acquired two companies and reached 500,000 users. Prior, he headed the marketing team at FS-ISAC, a threat intelligence sharing organization, during its growth from 2000 to 7000 members across 44 countries and helped launch and spin out its high growth, award-winning Soltra SaaS division. Earlier, he ran product marketing for several emerging and high profile products at McAfee during sequential acquisitions culminating in the acquisition by Intel for $7.7B. He frequently advises startups and also provides pro bono marketing to women-owned businesses.

Sakura Kawakami
CEO, Japan
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.

Richard Barbarino
Global Head of Sales Engineering
Prior to joining Coherent, Rich led Presales at two enterprise software companies, managing geographically dispersed teams driving ARR, innovation, scale, and global expansion. Most recently, as Senior Vice President – Engineering, Rich was responsible for a multi-disciplinary team at Duck Creek Technologies consisting of product, engineering, and presales. Prior, he was Practice Head – Banking, Financial Services, & Insurance at Wipro.
He is a mission-driven, multifaceted, inventive, and results driven executive with more than 20 years of progressive experience designing, developing, and implementing applications in ever-evolving complex technology environments. A proud veteran, he served as a Nuclear Engineer in the U.S. Navy.
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