Louis Scenti is the Founder and President of Cognoscenti Associates. An experienced leader, executive and practitioner for more than 30 years, he has dedicated himself to working in partnership with business leaders and senior management teams to develop and implement innovative talent management, leadership and organization development solutions to drive individual, team and organizational change. 

 

Prior to founding Cognoscenti Associates, Louis served as Senior Vice President and Chief Talent Officer for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York where he built an integrated talent management function comprised of eight people in 2009 and growing the team to more than 30 people upon his retirement in 2019. During that time, he led his team in:

• Streamlining the talent acquisition process with a focus on pipeline development and diversity;

• Implementing performance and talent management processes;

• Designing top-down coaching, leadership, management development programs; and,

• Building out an internal consulting practice focused on aligning business and people strategy.

 

Before the NY Fed, Louis was a senior member of Lehman Brothers’ Global Talent Management group, leading the firm’s top talent program for Senior Vice Presidents, facilitating programs and coaching high potential leaders in the U.S., London, and Tokyo. Before that, he was a Learning & Development Coverage Officer for Morgan Stanley, collaborating with the leadership of the Investment Banking and Equity Research divisions to create learning and organizational programs aligned with their unique business needs. Before joining Morgan Stanley, Louis worked for Merrill Lynch and served on the Global Leadership Development team leading the design, development and implementation of the first global, enterprise-wide, leadership development program for 4,000 Vice Presidents. He started his career with Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company and continued through its merger with the Chemical Banking Corporation as a senior training designer and facilitator during which time he trained hundreds of first line and experienced managers in management and professional skills programs in the U.S. and U.K. 

 

Louis serves as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Human Capital Management (HCM)  Master’s Degree program in Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies. He recently completed a semester as a part-time Adjunct Instructor at Yeshiva University's Sy Syms School of Business EMBA program where he taught Business Strategy and Advanced Leadership. From 2018-2019 he served as a part-time adjunct Program Associate in the HCM program at Columbia.

 

Louis earned a Master of Arts degree in Human Resource Management and Development from the New School University's Graduate School of Management (now the Milano School of Management) where he was the recipient of the Isador Lubin award for academic excellence.  He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rhode Island College in Speech and Theater, attending on a special talent scholarship. He holds a Professional Coaching Certificate from iCoach New York/Baruch College (ICF Accredited).