[6][7][8] In 1957, following the Suez Crisis, Cohen's family was forced to abandon all their assets and flee Egyptian President Nassar's persecution of Jews.

After leaving Harvard Business School, Cohen worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company in the UK and Italy.

In 1996 Cohen helped establish Easdaq, a technology focused stock exchange intended to be the European counterpart to the American NASDAQ.

[13] In 2002, he co-founded and became chairman of Bridges Ventures, an innovative sustainable growth investor that delivers both financial returns and social and environmental benefits.

Bridges Ventures has had several successful exits to date, including The Gym Group, The Office, Simply Switch, HS Atec and Harlands of Hull.

The aim of Portland Trust is to help develop the Palestinian private sector and relieve poverty through entrepreneurship in Israel.

Portland Trust is involved in a number of important initiatives, including the development of financial and economic infrastructure, housing, trade, investment, and entrepreneurship.

The final recommendation of the Commission was that a Social Investment Wholesale Bank be created to help finance charitable and voluntary projects by providing seed capital and loan guarantees.

[24] Since its official launch in July 2011, Sir Ronald Cohen has been the Chairman of Big Society Capital, Britain's first social investment bank.

The role of the BSC is to help speed up the growth of the social investment market, so that socially orientated financial organisations will have greater access to affordable capital, using an estimated £400million in unclaimed assets left dormant in bank accounts for over 15 years and £200million from the UK's largest high street banks.

[25] Its first £1 million investment from dormant accounts has gone to the Private Equity Foundation, an organisation whose mission it is to support disadvantaged young people into employment, education or training.

"[29] In 2007, the GMB (trade union) blamed private equity firms for the collapse of 96 pension funds and linked Cohen with losses totalling £81m at Dexion, British United Shoe Machinery and USM Texon.

[citation needed] In November 2011 he was financially linked with a new "non-political" movement in Israel, the sole goal of which is to change the country's electoral system.