BrandWikiReturn

Ryan Cohen

Ryan Cohen (born 1986)[1] is a Canadian entrepreneur, business executive and activist investor.[2][3] He founded e-commerce company Chewy in 2011, and was the company's chief executive officer (CEO) until 2018. Cohen is the chairman and CEO of GameStop.[4][5]

Cohen has been dubbed the "Meme King" for his influence on meme stocks such as that of GameStop.[6][7]

Early life

Cohen was born to a Jewish family in Montreal.[8][9] He never attended college, citing his father, who ran a glassware company, as his primary inspiration in pursuing an entrepreneurial route.[10] His father died in December 2019.[9]

Career

At the age of 15, Cohen started his first business collecting fees off referrals to various e-commerce sites. In 2011, at the age of 25, Cohen founded Chewy under its original name of MrChewy.[11] Cohen says his inspiration for picking the pet category came from his experience shopping for his poodle Tylee.[12] He cites his father Ted, who ran a glassware importing business, as a mentor.[13][14] To grow Chewy, Cohen used Amazon's guidelines for supply chain, logistics and the convenience of shopping online but added a focus on customer service, including hand-written holiday cards, pet portraits, and flowers for deceased pets.[13] In need of capital, Cohen says he originally approached over 100 venture capital firms and was rejected by all of them.[15][16] In 2013, Cohen secured the company's first outside investment from Volition Capital for $15 million.[17] By 2016, he had raised capital from investors including BlackRock and T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund.[18] That year the company had $900 million in sales and had become the number 1 online pet retailer.[19] By 2017, he raised $350 million and was preparing for an IPO.[20]

In April 2017, PetSmart purchased Chewy for $3.35 billion in the largest e-commerce acquisition of all time.[20] Chewy's value was credited in part to the company's relationship with its customers, from handwritten thank you and holiday cards to committing nearly one sixth of its employees to 24-hour customer service.[11][21] That year Fortune named Cohen one of its "40 under 40"[22] and Vox named him to its Recode 100 list.[23] Cohen remained CEO following the acquisition and operated the business largely as an independent unit of PetSmart.[19] He grew the business to 3.5 billion in revenue in 2018, including 66% of sales coming from customers signed up for automatic recurring shipments,[20] prior to stepping down as CEO to pursue personal goals and spend time with his family.[24] In June 2019, Chewy went public at a valuation of $8.7 billion.[25]

In January 2021, Cohen joined the GameStop board along with two Chewy executives.[26] Cohen was appointed chairman of the board on June 9th 2021 to lead a new committee in charge of a company-wide transformation.[27][28] Cohen has been instrumental in a number of changes at GameStop.[29]

On September 28, 2023, Cohen took over as Chief Executive Officer of GameStop. He is receiving no salary for his roles as CEO and chairman.

Investments

Following the sale of Chewy, Cohen made a significant investment in Apple, making him the largest individual shareholder of the tech company with 1.55 million shares (6.2 million split-adjusted shares as of August 31, 2020).[2][30]

In September 2020, Cohen disclosed a near 10% stake in GameStop,[31] making him the company's biggest individual investor. This was later increased to 12.9% on December 17, 2020, through an amended 13D filing with SEC.[32][33] According to these filings, Cohen's firm, RC Ventures, has expressed willingness to get more involved with the company in order "to produce the best results for all shareholders."[34]

In March 2022, it was disclosed that Cohen had a near 10% stake in Bed Bath & Beyond, through his investment company RC Ventures LLC.[35] Between August 15 and 18, his firm sold all of the stock, totaling 9.45 million shares.[36] The profit was estimated at $68 million.[37]

Continuing his investments in GameStop, Cohen acquired 100,000 more shares on March 22, 2022. Adjusted for the stock split, this acquisition represented 400,000 shares.[38] On June 9, 2023, Cohen bolstered his stake in the company with a purchase of 443,842 shares, equivalent to a $10 million investment.[39]

Cohen has acquired a large stake in Alibaba worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In August 2023, he began communicating with the company's board, encouraging them to increase their share-repurchase program, which they did later that year, extending it to March 2025 and raising the amount from $25 billion to $40 billion.[40]

In addition to his active positions, Cohen also owns large passive investments in Wells Fargo and Netflix.[7]

Books

In 2022, Cohen published a series of children's books titled Teddy based on lessons he learned from his father.[7] He wrote "My father, Ted Cohen, and his lessons have guided me throughout my life. He showed me an exceptional work ethic and an unwavering commitment to delayed gratification. Even though he is no longer with us, his legacy will live on forever. By writing these books, I am sharing his values and passing his wisdom on to my children."[41]

Political views

Cohen supported Donald Trump during the 2024 United States presidential election, and promoted the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was rigged.[42][43] Ryan Cohen has publicly expressed criticism of Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. In early 2025, he criticized Canada and France for "wokeness and DEI" and said they have "high taxes, Liberalism, Socialism, Progressivism" that generated a challenging business environment in those markets.[44]

Legal

Cohen was named in a federal lawsuit on August 24, 2022 for an alleged fraudulent scheme to artificially inflate the price of Bed Bath & Beyond's publicly traded stock in a pump and dump. The case was dismissed on June 11, 2024.[45][46][47]

Personal life and wealth

As of March 2025, Forbes estimated Cohen's net worth at $4.7 billion,[48] while Maclean's estimated his net worth at $5.6 billion.[49]

External links

References

  1. Jennifer Nille. Le bilan mitigé de Ryan Cohen, le Warren Buffett des "meme stocks" L'Echo, January 25, 2024^
  2. Chris Matthews. How the coronavirus stock-market rout dealt Chewy's founder a $150 million blow to his Apple holdings, for now MarketWatch, March 23, 2020, retrieved 2020-06-19^
  3. Nina Trentmann, Mark Maurer. GameStop CFO Was Forced Out as Activist Investor Pushes New Strategy The Wall Street Journal, February 24, 2021, retrieved March 19, 2021^
  4. Billionaire Ryan Cohen takes over as CEO at GameStop, adding to chairman role AP News, September 28, 2023, retrieved September 29, 2023^
  5. Biography - Ryan Cohen, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman GameStop Investor Relations, retrieved September 30, 2023^
  6. Amanda Winograd. How GameStop's Ryan Cohen became the 'meme king' CNBC, June 7, 2023, retrieved December 6, 2024^
  7. Miriam Gottfried, Caitlin McCabe. GameStop's Ryan Cohen Wants to Be More Than a Meme-Stock King WSJ.com, 2022-11-19, retrieved 2023-10-17^
  8. Gabe Friedman. The Jewish angles to the GameStop stock saga, explained The Times of Israel, January 29, 2021^
  9. Olga Kharif, Anders Melin. Ryan Cohen Maps Out GameStop Turnaround Plan Bloomberg L.P., April 26, 2021, retrieved 2022-03-23^
  10. Zack Friedman. Chewy Founder Ryan Cohen, Who Sold His Company For $3 Billion, Shares His Best Advice Forbes, retrieved 2022-03-23^
  11. Debora Lima. Chewy goes toe-to-toe with mainstay brands The Business Journals, American City Business Journals, March 3, 2017, retrieved November 28, 2018^
  12. Joan Verdon. Don't Bet Against Pets: Retail Lessons From The Chewy IPO Forbes, June 14, 2019, retrieved July 10, 2019^
  13. Joan Verdon. Ryan Cohen Started A Company That Took On Amazon, And Sold It For $3 Billion. Now He's Thinking About What's Next Forbes, January 26, 2020, retrieved June 24, 2020^
  14. Ryan Cohen. The Secret Weapon Behind Chewy Founder Ryan Cohen's Success Entrepreneur, May 4, 2020, retrieved June 24, 2020^
  15. Susan Adams. The Man Who Found Gold In Dog Food Forbes, January 10, 2017, retrieved November 28, 2018^
  16. Nancy Dahlberg. What it's like to grow and sell a multibillion-dollar company, at age 32 Miami Herald, March 26, 2018, retrieved November 28, 2018^
  17. Ryan Cohen. The Founder of Chewy.com on Finding the Financing to Achieve Scale Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Publishing, January–February 2020, retrieved 2020-01-10^
  18. Olivia Zaleski. Your Dog Deserves an Oil Portrait With Her Gluten-Free Kibble Bloomberg L.P., November 22, 2016, retrieved 2018-11-28^
  19. Maria Armental. PetSmart's Latest Bite at E-Commerce: Chewy.com The Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2017, retrieved May 24, 2018^
  20. Miriam Gottfried. How PetSmart Swallowed Chewy—and Proved the Doubters Wrong The Wall Street Journal, October 1, 2019, retrieved November 21, 2019^
  21. Connie Loizos. A low-flying pet supplies company just sold to PetSmart in the biggest e-commerce sale ever TechCrunch, TechCrunch, April 18, 2017, retrieved October 12, 2023^
  22. 40 Under 40 Fortune, 2017, retrieved July 23, 2019^
  23. Jason Del Rey. Ryan Cohen kept Chewy under the radar until it sold for more than $3 billion Vox, December 6, 2017, retrieved July 23, 2019^
  24. Nancy Dahlberg. Co-founder Ryan Cohen stepping down as CEO of Chewy, a homegrown success story Miami Herald, March 15, 2018, retrieved November 28, 2018^
  25. Guadalupe Gonzalez. Chewy's Co-Founder and Former CEO Explains How the Startup Went From Zero to a $8.7 Billion Public Company Inc., June 14, 2019, retrieved July 10, 2019^
  26. Dave Sebastian. GameStop to Name Chewy Co-Founder as Chairman The Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2021, retrieved October 31, 2023^
  27. Joe Fonicello. Ryan Cohen elected chairman of the board GMEDD, June 9, 2021, retrieved August 11, 2025^
  28. Ryan Cohen to be Chairman; New Board Announced, GameStop Due Diligence GameStop Due Diligence, 2021-04-08, retrieved 2025-08-12^
  29. Svea Herbst-Bayliss. From pet food to video games: inside Ryan Cohen's GameStop obsession Reuters, March 23, 2021, retrieved July 2, 2021^
  30. Devon Pendleton. A Tech Founder Cashed Out and Bet It All on Apple and Wells Fargo Bloomberg L.P., June 5, 2020, retrieved 2020-06-19^
  31. Olga Kharif. GameStop Rises on Investor's Plan to Make It an Amazon Rival Bloomberg L.P., September 21, 2020, retrieved October 13, 2020^
  32. Information to Be Included in Statements Filed Pursuant to Rule 13d-1(a) and Amendments Thereto Filed Pursuant to Rule 13d-2(a) U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, December 17, 2020, retrieved December 30, 2020^
  33. Ryan Cohen's Net Worth Explained: GameStop Billionaire CEO Who Boosted Alibaba Stake to $1B CCN.com, 2025-05-01, retrieved 2025-08-12^
  34. Information to Be Included in Statements Filed Pursuant to 13d-1(a) and Amendments Thereto Filed Pursuant to 13d-2(a) GameStop, September 21, 2020, retrieved October 13, 2020^
  35. GameStop's Cohen takes stake in Bed Bath & Beyond, pushes for changes Reuters, March 7, 2022, retrieved March 7, 2022^
  36. Shanthi Rexaline. Ryan Cohen Said To Be Under SEC Scanner Over His 'Sketchy' Bed Bath & Beyond Trades - Chewy (NYSE:CHWY), Bed Bath & Beyond (OTC:BBBYQ), GameStop (NYSE:GME) Benzinga, retrieved 2023-09-09^
  37. Anders Melin. Ryan Cohen pockets $68 million profit on Bed Bath & Beyond trade Fortune, retrieved 2022-08-19^
  38. Ryan Cohen Puts His Money Where His Mouth Is, Buys 100,000 Shares of GameStop, GameStop Due Diligence • GMEdd.com GameStop Due Diligence • GMEdd.com, 2022-03-22, retrieved 2024-02-10^
  39. Martin Baccardax. Ryan Cohen Boosts Stake In GameStop With $10 Million Share Purchase TheStreet, 2023-06-13, retrieved 2024-02-10^
  40. Lauren Thomas. Activist Investor Ryan Cohen Takes Stake in Alibaba and Pushes for More Stock Buybacks The Wall Street Journal, January 16, 2023, retrieved December 6, 2024^
  41. Tribute Teddy, retrieved 2024-02-10^
  42. Graig Graziosi. GameStop's CEO celebrated Trump's election victory. His company's stock has been climbing ever since The Independent, November 11, 2024, retrieved November 11, 2024^
  43. Trump has now won 3 elections in a row^
  44. Filip Timotija. GameStop CEO decries 'wokeness and DEI' as company seeks to sell Canadian and French operations The Hill, February 18, 2025, retrieved February 18, 2025^
  45. Jonathan Stempel. Billionaire investor Ryan Cohen beats Bed Bath & Beyond shareholder lawsuit Reuters, 11 June 2024^
  46. Steve Mollman. Bed Bath & Beyond CFO accused of "pump and dump" scheme before falling to his death from NYC skyscraper Fortune, September 4, 2022, retrieved September 5, 2022^
  47. Case# 1:22-cv-02541 The United States District Court for the District of Columbia, August 24, 2022, retrieved September 5, 2022^
  48. Profile: Ryan Cohen Forbes, retrieved 2025-03-06^
  49. Jessy Bains, Avery Mullen, Claire Gagne. Canada's Richest People Maclean's, November 7, 2024, retrieved December 6, 2024^