Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, today appointed Rick Gilbody acting president of the Americas Geography. Reporting to Cognos Chief Operating Officer Les Rechan, Mr. Gilbody will be responsible for spearheading Americas sales and solutions initiatives, ensuring customer success, and driving continued momentum and growth in the market. He will be acting in the position previously held by Tony Sirianni, who is leaving Cognos after a 12-year career to pursue personal interests. Cognos is continuing its search for a permanent Americas president.

"I want to thank Tony Sirianni for his strong contribution to the company. Since he joined Cognos in 1994, Tony has exhibited unwavering passion and leadership in driving the Americas and Worldwide sales and services operations. His personal conviction and customer focus have been instrumental in securing our leadership position in the performance management marketplace," Rechan said.

"As a seven-year Cognos veteran, Rick has demonstrated great leadership in both the finance function and field operations, and has earned the respect of the entire leadership team," Rechan said. "Rick has a deep understanding of our entire business and customer base. Under his direction, we'll be able to maintain both continuity and momentum in the Americas sales and solutions team during this planned leadership transition."

Mr. Gilbody joined Cognos in 2000 as the Americas vice president of finance and administration, following positions with IBM, Lotus Development, Instron Corporation and General Electric. He has 25 years of experience in finance and operations, including 16 years in the software industry. Last year, Mr. Gilbody was promoted to senior vice president, finance and operations, responsible for global field and product finance teams, facilities and distribution, and financial planning and analysis.

About Cognos:

Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, provides world-class enterprise planning and BI software and services to help companies plan, understand and manage financial and operational performance.

Cognos brings together technology, analytical applications, best practices, and a broad network of partners to give customers a complete performance system. The Cognos performance system is an open and adaptive solution that leverages an organization's ERP, packaged applications, and database investments. It gives customers the ability to answer the questions -- How are we doing? Why are we on or off track? What should we do about it? ? and enables them to understand and monitor current performance while planning future business strategies.

Cognos serves more than 23,000 customers in more than 135 countries, and its top 100 enterprise customers consistently outperform market indexes. Cognos performance management solutions and services are also available from more than 3,000 worldwide partners and resellers. For more information, visit the Cognos Web site at http://www.cognos.com.