Richard B. Cohen

For other people with the same name, see Richard Cohen (disambiguation).

Richard B. Cohen
Born	1952 (age 71–72)
Nationality	American
Education	University of Pennsylvania (BS)
Known for	Owner of C&S Wholesale Grocers
Title	Chairman and Chief Product Officer of Symbotic[1]
Spouse	Jan Cohen
Children	3
Parent	Lester H. Cohen (father)

Richard B. "Rick" Cohen (born 1952) is an American businessman and billionaire. He is the majority owner, chairman, and chief executive officer of Symbotic, an artificial intelligence-enabled robotics and warehouse automation company & owner of C&S Wholesale Grocers (C&S), a wholesale grocery supply company, with both based in Massachusetts.^[2]

Early life and education

Richard Cohen was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1952 to Norma and Lester Cohen.^[3][4] In 1970, he graduated from the Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts and then in 1974, he graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree economics, concentrating in accounting.

Career

In 1974, Cohen began working at the family company, C&S Wholesalers in Worcester, Massachusetts, which was co-founded by his grandfather, Israel Cohen, in 1918. After a three-week union strike that nearly shuttered the business, he persuaded his father to move the company to Brattleboro, Vermont.^[5]

In 1989, Cohen took control of C&S after his father retired and in 2003, he moved the company headquarters to Keene, New Hampshire.^[5] As the food distribution business is very low margin and customer retention is critical,^[5] C&S has been able to attain efficiencies - less than 2 percent of the orders processed have errors or omissions - by using performance incentives combined with self-managed teams of workers who are responsible for assembling customer orders thereby eliminating costly supervisors.^[5]

Cohen is also the founder of Symbotic, a robotics warehouse automation company.^[6] As of 2021 Symbotic's artificial intelligence-enabled platform was used by C&S, Walmart, Target, Albertsons, and other large retailers.^[2][7]

In December 2021, Symbotic announced plans to go public through a merger with a SPAC sponsored by SoftBank in order to accelerate its push into warehouse automation.^[8]

Philanthropy

In 2001, The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College was renamed after the Cohens in thanks of their financial support.^[3]

Personal life

Cohen is married to Jan Cohen, executive producer of the Kaddish Project, a musical oratorio on genocide; the couple have three children.^[5]

References

1. "Rick Cohen, Chairman and Chief Product Officer". Symbotic.
2. Feldman, Amy (December 13, 2021). "Meet The Billionaire Robot Overlord Reinventing Walmart's Warehouses". Forbes. Archived from the original on March 28, 2022.
3. "History and Mission". Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Keene State College. Archived from the original on March 28, 2022.
4. Tablet Magazine: "The Jewish Billionaire No One's Heard Of" by Adam Chandler, August 5, 2013.
5. Bloomberg: "Hidden Billionaire Cohen Hauls Fortune in Unmarked Trucks" by Brendan Coffey and Zohair Siraj, August 5, 2013; accessed May 3, 2014.
6. "Walmart Backed Supply Chain Company Symbotic Gets SPAC Deal: What Investors Should Know". Business Insider. December 13, 2021. Archived from the original on June 12, 2022.
7. Robbie Whelan (September 20, 2016). "Fully Autonomous Robots: The Warehouse Workers of the Near Future". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 9, 2016.
8. Podder, Sohini; Yasmin, Mehnaz (December 13, 2021). Dwivedi, Vinay; Kuber, Shailesh (eds.). "SoftBank SPAC to take Walmart-backed Symbotic public in $5.5 bln deal". Reuters. Archived from the original on October 15, 2023.