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