Rob Walker leads Cognizant's UK and Ireland business

Global technology consultancy Cognizant has named Rob Walker as its new boss for UK and Ireland.

“I am excited to be joining Cognizant and leading the business in UK and Ireland,” said Walker, who moves over from EY, where he most recently served as Consulting Markets Lead for its £500+ million UK&I consulting division.

During his 25-year career at EY, Walker held a range of leadership roles in EY Consulting. Appointed a partner in 1996, Walker led the firm’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) vertical for EY Consulting in the UK and Ireland, and up to 2017 headed the Risk Advisory practice in the region.

His areas of focus included supporting clients – mainly FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 corporate clients across a wide range of sectors and industries – with managing emerging technology and digital capabilities to drive improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of internal control. Latterly in the role of Consulting Markets Lead, Walker was responsible for the growth of EY Consulting’s market teams.

He will now leverage his experience to lead Cognizant in the UK & Ireland, which according to Ursula Morgenstern, President Global Growth Markets at the firm, “represents one of our biggest opportunities for growth.” 

“We have a solid foundation in the region on which to build, and Rob’s leadership experience across both internal and client transformation roles will help us accelerate growth in the UK & Ireland,” she added. Morgenstern herself joined Cognizant just one month ago from Atos, where she previously served as Head of Central Europe. 

Based in London, Walker will lead all aspects of Cognizant’s regional operations, including strategic planning, commercial development, client delivery, internal operations, thought leadership and human capital. 

“I’m excited to be joining the amazing team at a Cognizant. Such an array of talent with deep technology and industry expertise to support companies with their digital transformations. I’m also delighted to be joined a team a team that shares my values in putting client outcomes at the heart of what we do,” said Walker. 

Last month, Cognizant beefed up its AI capabilities in the UK with the acquisition of Inawisdom.