Peter A. Cohen | |
|---|---|
| Born | {August 20, 1946}[1] |
| Education | Ohio State University |
| Occupation | Banker |
| Known for | Cowen Inc. (Chairman & CEO) Shearson Lehman American Express (Chairman & CEO) |
| Spouse | Brooke Goodman |
| Parent(s) | Florence & Sidney B. Cohen |
Peter A. Cohen is the chairman and CEO ofAndover National Corporation, a public holding company. He was formerly the chairman and CEO ofCowen Inc., also known as Cowen & Company now TD Cowen.[2] Prior to his current role, Cohen founded Ramius Capital Management in 1994, a $13 billion investment firm, which he merged with Cowen Inc. in 2009. Prior to this, Cohen was the chairman and chief executive officer ofShearson Lehman American Express from 1983 through 1991.[1][3]
Cohen was born and raised onLong Island, New York. He is ofJewish descent.[4][5] Cohen graduated fromOhio State University in 1968 and received hisMBA fromColumbia Business School in 1969.
Cohen began his career on Wall Street atReynolds & Co., later part ofDean Witter Reynolds and in 1970, joinedCBWL-Hayden Stone. In 1973, Cohen was appointed assistant to the firm's chairman,Sanford I. Weill, the architect of a major consolidation of brokerage and investment banking firms in the 1960s and 1970s. Cohen would remain with the firm and was integral to its various mergers in the 1970s, includingShearson, Hammill & Co. andLoeb, Rhoades, Hornblower & Co.[6] While there he held various positions including CAO, CFO, COO, chairman and CEO.
In 1978, Cohen left Shearson for one year to work forEdmond Safra atRepublic New York Corporation and theTrade Development Bank before returning toShearson in 1979. Shearson merged withAmerican Express in 1981 at which time Cohen became president and chief operating officer and in 1983 chairman and chief executive officer. At age 36, Cohen was by far the youngest head of a major Wall Street firm.[3] Shearson went on to acquire Lehman Brothers Inc. in 1984 and EF Hutton in 1988. During Cohen's career at Shearson, the firm made 24 acquisitions.
In 1988, Cohen was a key player in theleveraged buyout ofRJR Nabisco. Cohen andShearson Lehman supported the company's CEOF. Ross Johnson in a proposed $17 billion buyout.[7][8] Ultimately, Johnson and Cohen lost their bid for the company and RJR Nabisco was acquired by the private equity firmKohlberg Kravis Roberts.[9][10] Cohen was portrayed byPeter Riegert in the 1993 filmBarbarians at the Gate depicting the RJR Nabisco buyout.[11]
In 1991, Cohen founded the securities and asset management businesses ofRepublic National Bank of New York. From November 1992 to May 1994, Cohen was vice chairman and a director of Republic New York.[12] In July 1994, he founded an asset management company, Ramius Capital Group, which grew to $13 billion in assets undermanagement by 2008. In 2009, Ramius acquired Cowen and Co., a 100-year-old biotechnology and technology-focused securities firm where Cohen was chairman and CEO until December 2018 and chairman through June 2019.[citation needed]
In 2019, Cohen retired from Cowen to pursue building new businesses and subsequently started three companies: Peter Cohen LLC, a personal holding company that invests in private and public companies; Difesa Capital Management, an arbitrage investment partnership he started with his son, Andrew Cohen; and Andover National Corporation, a holding company created for the purpose of acquiring essential-service companies.
Over his career, Cohen has served on numerous corporate and philanthropic boards including those ofAmerican Express, TheNew York Stock Exchange,Kroll Inc.,Olivetti, Linkem S.p.A.,Telecom Italia, L-3 Corporation, TheNew York City Opera, TheMount Sinai Medical Center and the Children's Hearing Institute. He is currently lead director for Scientific Games, chairman of the board of directors of PolarityTE, a biologics company, and a director of Quadrant Biosciences, a diagnostics company built around epigenetics. He is also chairman of the American Museum of Finance and a director of the Gift of Life Marrow Foundation.
Cohen has been married twice. His first marriage ended in divorce.[4] He is married to former flight attendant Brooke Goodman;[4][13] they have a daughter.[4]
Then you can appreciate the yearnings of Peter Cohen, 41, chairman of the Shearson Lehman Hutton brokerage firm
But they were also fast friends who were linked by their shared Jewish background: DeBenedetti would talk to Cohen about how he had narrowly escaped the Nazis in World War II.