Community Representative | Chair of the Retail & Commercial Services Committee
Neil Cohen has more than 35 years of experience creating, building and managing brands from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, including SEGA, Hilton, Arby’s and McDonalds. Currently, he consults with companies on marketing, business and innovation strategies, teaches marketing at San Francisco State University College of Business, serves as advisor to three start-ups, is the Silicon-Valley Liaison and Mentor for Startup Mexico, is a mentor for Puerto Rico’s Parallel18, Santiago’s Startup Chile and San Francisco’s IndieBio biotech accelerator, Terra accelerator and Singularity University.
Neil has consulted with a myriad of consumer brands including Hewlett Packard, SonicWall, Alibaba, eBates, Pyramid Brewing, Galvanina Water, Yahoo!, San Francisco International Airport and SF State University among others. Prior to consulting, he held executive marketing and sales positions at SEGA, Hilton, Arby’s and Zircon Electronic Hand Tools and was a founding partner at agencies Gelman & Gray Communications (purchased by Chiat Day) and Douglas Consulting Group (purchased by Cohn & Wolf).
He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from the University of Florida, Gainesville, and a Master of Science degree in Journalism from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He currently sits on the board of San Francisco State University’s University Corporation (UCorp). Neil is also an avid Fùtbol player and diehard San Francisco Giants fan.