Cognigy

Philipp Heltewig holds an MSc in Information Systems from the University of Münster and a BScIS from Queensland University of Technology. He spent nine years at Sitecore, rising from Regional Account Manager to Managing Director where he established the company's APAC presence. In 2016 he co-founded Cognigy in Düsseldorf, building it into a leading enterprise conversational AI platform. Following Cognigy's acquisition by NiCE Ltd. in 2025 — described as the largest AI acquisition in European history — Heltewig serves as Chief AI Officer and General Manager of NiCE Cognigy.

Sascha Poggemann holds an MSc in Information Technology and spent a decade in the high-tech industry before co-founding Cognigy in 2016. He led technical development at iExergy and built the vendor-neutral smart home solution wibutler before joining Philipp Heltewig and Benjamin Mayr to launch Cognigy. As COO he has overseen operations through the company's global expansion and is an elected executive board member of Bitkom, Germany's leading digital industry association representing over 2,000 companies.

Benjamin Mayr holds a BSc in Software Development from Mediadesign Hochschule für Design und Informatik and was an early adopter of containerized software well before Kubernetes became mainstream. Before co-founding Cognigy in 2016, he worked as a software consultant delivering custom solutions across medical, automotive, gaming, and social media verticals. At Cognigy he architected the platform's core scalable infrastructure, built out an engineering organization of over 50, and now serves as VP Engineering and Head of Architecture at NiCE Cognigy.