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Company History
John D. Cosgrove is President of Cosgrove Consulting Group, a division of Cosgrove Computer Systems, Inc., which has been in operation since 1970, first as a sole proprietor then incorporating in 1981. Originally, the company provided software engineering services primarily to large aerospace and defense clients in the Los Angeles area. Several long term contracts in the utility industry were
included and later forensic engineering became a major focus of
the company.
In 1996, his daughter Denise Cosgrove Bassett joined the company as Executive Vice President. Denise brought additional consulting methodologies and technical
expertise in telecommunications and disaster recovery planning, gained from her years of consulting with the Big 5 and other large, traditional consulting firms.
Cosgrove Consulting Group has consultants who are drawn to significant projects that require their unique combination of skills and time-tested experience. They are experienced professionals who take a stake in the success of each client project. The combination of long-term experienced computer
engineers combined with younger professionals experienced in the latest technologies provides cost-effective consulting services with access to a broad range of skills.
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About Us
Cosgrove Consulting Group prefers the “virtual consultant”
approach to consulting. Its consultants are dispersed throughout
the United States with most in the Western Region. All project
consultants are available to travel in order to provide the most
flexibility to the clientele. |
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John D. Cosgrove,
President
John Cosgrove, PE, CDP, has been a software engineer for over forty years and a self-employed consultant since 1970. His specialties include forensic engineering, project management, software architecture; real-time/critical systems; and hardware/software interfaces. He has extensive experience with aviation computer systems, including development of aircraft navigation systems and communication devices. Recent projects have also involved business continuity and disaster recovery planning for distributed enterprises.
Mr. Cosgrove has taught a graduate-level engineering course,
“Engineering the Software Product,” for UCLA and Loyola
Marymount in addition to numerous short courses nationwide,
offered by major educational institutions. For several years, he
gave the software engineering portion of the undergraduate
Engineering Ethics course each quarter at UCLA. He has authored
and delivered many papers, articles, and lectures on software
litigation, project management, software business issues, and
computer safety. The article “Software Engineering and the Law”
was published in the IEEE Computer Society “Software” magazine
May/June 2001. He authored the chapter on “Software Engineering
& Litigation” in the current edition of “Encyclopedia of
Software Engineering” published by John Wiley & Sons.
As a forensic expert, Mr. Cosgrove has worked on numerous cases
involving recovered computer data, computer system failure,
contractual disputes, intellectual property disputes, and other
matters involving computer systems and software.
Mr. Cosgrove received a Master of Engineering degree from UCLA,
and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree from
Loyola Marymount University at Los Angeles (now LMU). He is a
California-registered Professional Electrical Engineer, a Life
Senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society, member of ACM, American
College of Forensic Examiners (ACFEI), the National Society of
Professional Engineers (NSPE) and a Fellow of the National
Academy of Forensic Engineers (affiliate of NSPE).
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Denise Cosgrove Bassett, Executive Vice President
Ms. Bassett has twenty five years experience as a
Telecommunications and IT consultant to major corporations,
including several FORTUNE 500 and 1000 companies, and government
agencies throughout the United States and Canada. She defines
business and technological requirements and designs solutions,
provides business recovery planning and risk management, and
creates IT outsourcing solutions comprised of voice, data and
desktop technologies.
As a consultant to American Express, Ms. Bassett has managed
projects in several organizations, including CISO, Data Network
Infrastructure and Infrastructure Security Engineering. For
CISO, Ms. Bassett managed the Security Awareness Training
Program delivered to 90,000 employees and vendors in 9
languages, assisted in several US Federal regulatory and
international audits and managed the Business Impact Analysis
for the Business Continuity Planning governance team. While in
Network Infrastructure, Ms. Bassett managed site migrations to a
new Global Wide Area data network with a scope of 1,700 sites.
For the Network Infrastructure Engineering organization, she
managed global implementations for McAfee’s ePolicy Orchestrator
and Policy Auditor solutions and Cisco’s host-based intrusion
prevention security solution to midrange and end-user computing
systems.
Ms. Bassett participated in a sales effort that resulted in a
5-year outsourcing contract between Qwest and Wells Fargo Bank.
As a result of a merger between Wells Fargo and Norwest Bank,
Ms. Bassett subsequently became the project manager responsible
for converting 1,000 Norwest bank locations to the Wells Fargo
voice outsource model. She also designed and implemented the
Program Management Office (PMO) for the Wells Fargo Bank
outsource engagement.
As a consultant to Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., Ms. Bassett
coordinated the documentation of technical procedures for
Schwab’s IT Storage Management initiatives which involved HSM,
SMS and Catalog systems. In another project, Ms. Bassett
assisted the Business Continuity planning team in developing a
cold site strategy to backup Schwab’s two large computer
centers.
While consulting to USAA, Ms. Bassett participated in several
business continuity planning projects as part of a $121.3M IT
Business Continuity Program. The project scope included the
recovery of the company’s entire network capability, supporting
the Home Office Campus’s 11,000 employees and all remote U. S.
and European locations, and all communications and desktop
technology required for recovering 2,000 remote USAA users.
As a consultant to Amkor Electronics, a $2 billion
semi-conductor company, Ms. Bassett created the PMO and provided
technical expertise for a multi-million dollar strategic project
to select and implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
system. SAP R/3, Oracle Applications and Baan Triton IV ERP
software systems were evaluated.
As the Manager of Telecommunications Services at Northwestern
Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Ms. Bassett managed the hospital’s
outsourced telecommunications environment.
She also managed the planning project to define the
telecommunications technology and infrastructure requirements
for Northwestern’s new 2,000,000 square foot hospital.
As a Senior Network Consultant for Comdisco Professional
Services, Ms. Bassett managed disaster recovery planning
projects, specifically for voice and data networks of U.S. and
Canadian clients. Typical engagements included: risk/business
impact analysis, network recovery strategy and recovery plan
development, and recovery plan maintenance program development.
As a Manager in Andersen Consulting’s (now Accenture) Network
Solutions practice, Ms. Bassett managed engagements in the areas
of voice processing systems design and implementation, voice and
data systems integration, voice and data - wide area network
analysis, strategic reviews, and network organizational studies.
She also developed new client relationships and internal
training programs on enhanced voice processing technologies.
As a Project Manager at EDS Corporation, Ms. Bassett conducted
consulting projects for FORTUNE 1000 clients that included
strategic technology reviews, voice processing systems design
and implementation, and network analysis, design and
implementation. She also promoted professional and leasing
services to Western Region-based accounts.
Ms. Bassett has a Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA.
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Peter Alexander Ph. D., Associate
Dr. Alexander has 28 years of development and operations
experience in high technology companies. He has made hands-on
technical contributions to numerous business software application
development efforts. His knowledge and experience extends over
three principal areas: Architecture and design of complex
web-server and client-server business software systems, detailed
design and coding techniques for business software applications,
software project management and development contracts.
Dr. Alexander’s detailed programming knowledge encompasses Java,
C, C++, ASP, Python and Visual Basic languages, as well as
assembly language for Intel and 68K microprocessors and real-time
DSP applications. He has also managed programming teams that
created applications for Fujitsu, Hitachi and IBM mainframes. His
networking experience includes TCP/IP router development for
Ethernet LAN’s, fiber optic links, and wide area networks.
Dr. Alexander has managed many client-server and web-based ERP
business solutions projects for Financial, Inventory, Order Entry,
Shipping, Supply Chain and Manufacturing core modules. He has
worked on semiconductor manufacturing systems involving yield
prediction and supply chain management using statistical
forecasting. He has direct experience with Oracle 8.05, 8i and 9i
as well as SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000 for both
transactional and data warehouse systems.
He has also held responsibilities for internal network operation,
intranet, and public access web server IT functions in several
corporations. In this role he gained a detailed understanding of
security issues such as SSL, user authentication, network
security, firewalls, hacking countermeasures. He is also
knowledgeable about email servers, backup and restore procedures,
and service level agreements for customer-outsourced data in ASP
systems.
Dr. Alexander holds a B.S. degree with 1st Class Honors from the
University of Canterbury, New Zealand, the M.S. degree in E. E.
from the University of Illinois (Urbana), and the Ph. D. from MIT,
also in Electrical Engineering. He was awarded a Fulbright
Scholarship for graduate study in the United States in 1965.
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Margaret Chock
Ph. D., Associate
Margaret Chock, PhD, CMC (Certified Management
Consultant), has been Principal of M. I. B. Chock, LLC and its
predecessors for 15 years. She has also held research,
management, and technical positions in biotech, consulting, and
aerospace companies.
Litigation support projects include
forensic research on patent claims, pharmaceutical system
interface and functionality, and reconstruction of software
system development.
She invented a novel approach to
data base management and data manipulation for multi-modal
images and other types of two- and three-dimensional data. It
provides a very flexible platform for modeling biomedical,
geographic, or other applications where different types of data
interact in complicated ways over a region of interest.
She has conducted research and/or
developed systems or software for applications in biomedicine,
spatial data, pattern recognition, image processing, simulation
and modeling, database management, geographic information
management, facilities management, transportation, utilities,
surveying, mapping, and data warehousing.
She has helped clients through the
full life cycle of developing new computer systems and
procedures to use them: implementation planning, requirements
analysis, technology evaluation, enterprise architecture
analysis, trade-off studies, process analysis, design, and
implementation, systems analysis, design, implementation, test
design, vendor management, project management, small to
multi-enterprise, quality assurance, training, documentation,
maintenance and update.
Dr. Chock has experience in
managing both start-up Information Technology departments and
functional departments in larger information technology
organizations.
She maintains active participant in
a number of professional and technical organizations, in order
to stay abreast of the latest business and technical issues and
to find technical specialists and other resources that may be
useful to her clients:
- Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM)
- Association of Information
Technology Professionals (AITP)
- Independent Computer
Consultants Association (ICCA)
- Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
- Biomedical Society
- Computer Society
- Consultants Network (Los Angeles and Orange County
Secretary)
- Institute of Management
Consultants (IMC) (Southern California Board)
- Southern California Biomedical
Council
- UCLA Engineering Alumni
Executive Board (Committee Chair)
Dr. Chock holds BA degrees in
Mathematics and Anthropology from University of California,
Santa Barbara, and an MS and PhD. in Computer Science from UCLA.
She is Certified as a Management Consultant by the Institute of
Management Consultants.
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Michael R. Elliott, Associate
Michael R. Elliott assists attorneys with litigation
involving complex technology issues. He provides Software
Engineering expertise in the following areas:
* Computer Software
* Unix-based Computer Operating Systems
* Embedded and Real-time Computer Operating Systems
* Web Servers and Web Applications
* Computer Security
* Computer Networking
* Process Control (automation)
* Constrained Computer Systems
* Real-time Software Issues
* Safety Critical Software Systems
* Software Design and Development
* Avionics Software
Having published, presented and taught at the college level,
he is able to break down high technology concepts into
understandable basic language. This ability is particularly
beneficial when serving as a computer forensics expert witness.
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Lynn A. Fraher, CPA, Associate
Ms. Fraher has twenty years experience in management consulting
and public accounting serving primarily the financial services and
technology industries. She has spent most of her career as a
professional services consultant with Big 5 firms. Currently she
consults with a number of clients on financial, marketing and
business development matters.
As the Director of Marketing at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ms. Fraher
directed all marketing services for approximately 2000 consultants
in the West Region Consulting Practice. She was responsible for
events, public relations, collateral, internal communications and
knowledge management. She defined and implemented the marketing
strategy including the recruitment and professional development of
more than 20 professionals.
As a Senior Manager at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), Ms.
Fraher managed the financial functions, administrative operations
and marketing services for various components of this
multi-billion dollar global management and technology consulting
firm. She managed multi-million dollar budgets, project and
program planning, and executive level reporting.
At JMB Institutional Realty Corporation, a multi-billion dollar
real estate investment and development corporation, Ms. Fraher was
the Assistant Director of Institutional Financial Reporting. In
this role she managed the accounting, administrative operations,
and financial reporting for six real estate portfolios with over
$500 million in assets.
Ms. Fraher served as the Director of Corporate Accounting for
Equity Group Investments, Inc. She directed the accounting and
administrative operations for a holding company with 50
subsidiaries and over $7 billion in real estate assets.
At Arthur Andersen, Ms. Fraher was a Senior Manager managing all
phases of audit engagements for both public and private companies.
Her clients and experience included the venture capital, real
estate, capital markets, and commercial finance industries. She
consulted on accounting and business issues, SEC and other
regulatory requirements, income tax matters, and internal
controls.
Ms. Fraher has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is a Certified Public Accountant
in Illinois.
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Raymond Madachy, Ph.D., Associate
Dr. Raymond Madachy has over 25 years of management and
technical experience in software and systems engineering, and is
a recognized expert in software cost estimation and metrics. He
is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Southern
California in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department,
and Principal of the USC Center for Systems and Software
Engineering. Previously he was Chief Science Officer at the Cost
Xpert Group responsible for the research and development of
software cost estimation and metrics tools, and was Chief
Scientist at C-bridge Institute where he led consulting and
training in software methodologies and economic analysis. Before
that he was manager of the Software Engineering Process Group at
at Litton Guidance and Control Systems achieving SEI CMM Level 4
after being the lead for software metrics, cost estimation and
risk management at Litton Data Systems. He has also served as a
Visiting Scientist with the Software Engineering Institute. His
consulting clients have included Accenture, Blue Cross, Chevron,
Cognizant Technologies, Lucent, Motorola, Northrop-Grumman,
Seagate, Unisys, USAA, Wipro and other Fortune 500 firms.
Dr. Madachy specializes in litigation support and financial
analysis for software systems. He has performed as an expert
witness on software cost, quality and contractual disputes. He
has also led the Cosgrove team on engagements to conduct
business value analysis of software products. These engagements
support mergers, acquisitions and investment analysis.
In addition to his industrial experience he has over 75
publications in the areas of software cost/schedule estimation,
software risk management, process modeling and improvement. He
is a co-author of the book Software Cost Estimation with COCOMO
II and his book Software Process Dynamics be out in late 2007.
He has a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from USC,
an M.S. in Systems Science from the University of California,
San Diego and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the
University of Dayton. He is a senior member of IEEE, ACM,
INCOSE, Tau Beta Pi, Pi Tau Sigma, serves on the program
committees for the International Forum on COCOMO and
Systems/Software Cost Modeling, the International Conference on
Softwar Process. He has also served on program committees for
several other conferences and and the LA Software Process
Improvement Network (SPIN) steering committee. He is also a
reviewer for several referreed journals including IEEE
Transactions on Software Engineering, Journal of Systems and
Software, IEEE Software and IEEE Computer. |
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David Rismann, CFCE, CCFT, Associate
Mr. Rismann has more than eighteen years experience developing software systems and applications. He incorporates a thorough knowledge of information technology with a strong background in the financial and investment fields to provide successful and effective consulting solutions.
Mr. Rismann is also a trained and certified computer forensic
technician.
Mr. Rismann was the Director MIS for Wurts & Associates, a leading west coast investment consulting firm. While there he developed applications for tracking broker/dealer commissions, auditing the accuracy of custodial statements, producing portfolio performance measurement reports, and creating an online investment manager database/search system.
At the Plexus Group, a consulting firm specializing in transaction cost analysis, Mr. Rismann designed and developed a variety of software solutions including a system to convert and store ten-minute interval stock market snapshots, a series of programs designed to streamline the process for importing and analyzing data provided by investment managers, and a report production system for international portfolios.
Prior to working for the Plexus Group, Mr. Rismann was an analyst for Wilshire Associates where he was responsible for maintaining portions of their Trust Online System (an interface to their TUCS product), and for developing a high-speed data transfer package for their PC-mainframe applications.
David Rismann Consultants Inc. (www.drc-inc.com) was established in 1997 but has roots that stretch back more than a decade. What began as a thriving PC VAR/Integrator business eventually blossomed into an information systems consulting firm, catering to the small - to - medium sized businesses.
Mr. Rismann earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Los Angeles from where he graduated magna cum laude.
After completion of forensic computer examiner training with Key Computer
Services, Mr. Rismann was awarded the Certified Forensic Computer Examiner
designation (CFCE) from IACIS, the International Association of Computer
Investigative Specialists (www.cops.org). Mr.
Rismann has also earned the Advanced Certified Computer Forensic
Technician (CCFT) certification by the High Tech Crime Network (www.htcn.org).
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Eric Robi, CCE, Associate
Mr. Robi has over 13 years of management experience in the
computer industry.
Mr. Robi served as Senior Project Manager for ASK International,
a leading computer-based-design development firm. While at ASK,
Mr. Robi spearheaded several projects including the development
of a three-CD training program for rental sales agents at Alamo
Rent A Car. He also served as lead designer for computer-based
training applications developed for Western Financial, XP
Systems and HP.
Mr. Robi co-founded a high-tech specialized marketing agency,
Lassoo Interactive and managed the company for six years. While
at Lassoo, he was responsible for marketing systems and client
strategy. He developed lead generation programs for clients such
as Microsoft Great Plains, IBM, UPS Capital, and Nortel. He
designed some of the first online-based marketing techniques
common today and helped clients implement technology-based
marketing applications.
As President of Federal Forensics Group,
www.fedforensics.com a
forensics and consulting practice, Mr. Robi provides computer
forensics and investigative services to a wide variety of
clients including law firms, corporations and individuals. He is
one of the few certified computer examiners who conducts
criminal defense work. He is trained in several forensic
software applications including Encase.
He holds a Bachelors of Art Degree from the University of
Toronto and a Masters Degree in Instructional Technology from
California State University, Los Angeles where he was awarded
Special Recognition in Graduate Studies for Outstanding Academic
Achievement twice in a row.
He is a Certified Computer Examiner (CCE) granted by the
International Society of Forensic Computer Examiners. He also is
a board member of the Forensic Expert Witness Association.
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David Sweigert, Associate
Mr. Sweigert present holds the PMP, CISA and CISSP
credentials as well as two Masters degrees; in computer security
and project management. His military experiences in cryptology
allowed him to successfully transistion into the role of a
security architect for "open systems" (see UNIX, LINUX, etc.)
for government and military systems. Between 1985 and 1995 Mr.
Sweigert acquired a great deal of in-depth background and
experience designing secure enterprise-wide query/response
applications and supporting networks.
In 1998 Mr. Sweigert began blending the technical controls
associated with design work with external audit frameworks (such
as AICPA SAS-70, Level I and II) to support trusted third party
(TTP) certification authorities employing public key
infrastructure technology. In 2001 he became the Managing
Director of a Luxembourg based validation authority that was
actively harmonizing cross-border trust policy for the American
Bankers Association and the Luxembourg Bankers Association. He
supported the concept of TTP PKI validation authority frameworks
(2004) while supporting on-going research at Merck, Inc. as part
of the SAFE BioPharma initiative. Both of these validation
frameworks relied upon the use of smart card technology.
Mr. Sweigert has designed secure cross-border authentication
systems that rely on federated identity frameworks (see Security
Assertion Markup Language) on behalf of the RouteOne credit
portal sponsored by General Motors, Ford and Toyota. As security
architect for the RouteOne portal (2002), Mr. Sweigert ensured
compliance with the Graham-Leach-Bliley (GLB) Act and the Fair
Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
His knowledge of legislative, oversight, regulatory and
compliance frameworks to foster increased information technology
(IT) security also encompasses the Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act (see HIPAA). Mr. Sweigert served on the
work group to harmonize the HIPAA law with implementing agancy
regulations promulgated by the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services (DHHS).
A sought after speaker, Mr. Sweigert has served as a member
of the American Bar Association's Information Security Committee
(ISC) since 1999.
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Rocky Termanini, Associate
Mr. Termanini provides consulting services specializing in
information technology (IT) for the needs of international
businesses, particularly those involved in Middle Eastern
countries. Recent and on-going projects include payment and
security systems for banking and other financial services clients,
which involve architecting upgrades for multi-national business
models and incorporating emerging technologies.
With his recent project experience and lifetime language/cultural
fluency in the Middle East, he provides unique support to the
needs of global businesses involved in those countries. Services
include the analysis/development of business/marketing plans, a
company-wide contingency plan and also include direction of all
aspects of international IT projects from architecture,
application components, security layer, infrastructure and
integration. |
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Who We Are
