Sir Ronald Cohen (born 1945) is an Egyptian-born Jewish British businessman and political figure, known as "the father of British venture capital".After leaving Harvard Business School, Cohen worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company in the United Kingdom and Italy. In 1971, along with two partners, he founded Apax Partners, Britain's first venture capital firm. The company grew slowly at first, but expanded rapidly in the 1990s, becoming Britain's largest venture capital firm, and "one of three truly global venture capital firms". Apax provided startup capital for over 500 companies, and provided money for many others, including AOL, Virgin Radio, Waterstone's, and PPL Therapeutics, the company that cloned Dolly the sheep. In 1996 Cohen helped establish Easdaq, a technology focused stock exchange intended to be the European counterpart to the American Nasdaq. He is the recipient of a Jubilee Award for services to Israeli business, awarded by Benjamin Netanyahu and the BUCA's Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a member of the Board of Overseers at Harvard and is also a fellow of Exeter College. In 2005 he started a new investment company called ... He also invested in the Hoxton Hotel in East London.
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