About Us: Our Belief, Vision and Team

We believe AI will run more of the business than most institutions have planned for. The ones that lead will be the ones that can stand behind it.

Our belief

Governance is not the brake on AI. Done well, it is what lets an institution say yes: to more use cases, in more critical operations, sooner.

Our vision

Every AI system in regulated financial services known, owned and evidenced, so institutions can become AI native without losing control of how they run.

Engineering depth, governance experience

Daniel Mackle

CTO and Founding Partner

Technical founder with experience across corporate finance and software solutions in Australia, Singapore and North America. Daniel leads CognaOne's platform, helping organisations adopt AI safely and with confidence.

He leads the product and its governance model, from the control registry and assurance framework to the action gate.

His career began in bank treasury and risk systems, then treasury systems consulting across Australia and North America. Over the following fifteen years he led finance, digital asset custody and compliance, and technology partnerships for a private investment group in Sydney and Singapore, working alongside regulated banks and family offices.

The thread through all of it is control: of the systems that move money, and now of AI that acts.

LinkedIn →

Every technology that changed how we work earned its place the same way: people learned to trust it.
AI is at that point now. The capability has arrived. What's still forming is the confidence to let it act inside institutions that carry real responsibility.
That's the work we chose. Not to slow AI down, but to give it ground worth standing on.
I believe the organisations that lead the next decade will be the ones that made trust part of how they build, not something checked at the end.
Daniel Mackle, CTO and Founding Partner

Anita Douglas

Founding Advisor

Board and regulator-level expertise with more than 20 years across governance, risk and delivery assurance, including ASX, Allianz, Australian Retirement Trust and major infrastructure companies.

Anita helps organisations make sense of complexity by translating strategy and regulatory expectations into clear, practical frameworks, with senior roles at ASX, Allianz, Toll, Ausgrid and Transport for NSW.

At ASX she built and led enterprise delivery assurance, overseeing portfolios of major programmes and reporting to executives, boards and regulators. At CognaOne she guides governance models, risk structures and assurance approaches.

LinkedIn →

I've spent my career in rooms where the question wasn't whether something could be done, but whether it could be stood behind. By a board, by a regulator, by the people it affects.
AI is now walking into those rooms. The organisations that do well won't be the ones with the most rules. They'll be the ones where accountability is clear, culture carries the controls, and assurance is part of the first decision rather than a review after the last.
That's the part of this work I care about most. Technology moves fast. Trust moves at the speed of people, and it's worth getting right.
Anita Douglas, Founding Advisor

If you build AI systems, or lead governance, risk or operations where agents will act under real constraints, see Careers or get in touch.

Let's connect

Tell us what you are working on. Every enquiry is handled in confidence.