TEAM
JOSH COHEN
Partner
Josh Cohen is on a mission to make a difference via capitalism. He believes that how you make money (and what you do with it once you have it) matters and wants to help improve the world, now.
When considering how he wanted to be remembered, Josh turned to impact investing before it had a name, combining his experience as a venture capitalist, technology company executive, and family office CIO with his values. Thus, the idea for City Light was born: partnering with experienced entrepreneurs using technology to generate significant financial returns while having a measurable social impact.
As a father of three boys, Josh’s sense of urgency to address issues such as education for underserved communities, tackling the global climate crises and keeping families safe has only continued to grow. It is this commitment that makes his work more than a passion, but a calling.
Prior to founding City Light, Josh led direct investments for a Greenwich CT-based family office, worked in venture capital for a family office based in St. Louis, was a Partner in a private debt fund, and was the Director of Business Development for Mobility Electronics (NASDAQ: IGOI). He began his career as an investment banker in the technology group of Deutsche Banc Alex Brown in San Francisco.
Josh co-founded (and is a Board member of) The ImPact, a member network whose mission is to inspire families to make impact investments more effectively. In addition, he is on the investment committee for a family office based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Josh sits on the Board of Directors for Ready Responders and is an advisor to OhmConnect, Trilogy, and Straighterline. Josh previously held advisory roles with 2U (Nasdaq: TWOU), Shotspotter (Nasdaq: SSTI) and Practice (Acquired by Instructure: INST). He is a frequent speaker on the topic of impact investing.
TOM GROOS
Partner

After successfully running and growing Tyden Group, a security products company, and then Viking Group, a world leader in fire protection systems, Tom embarked on a new career: assisting new companies that can benefit human lives at scale:
“The terror attacks of September 11, 2001 had a profound effect on me and strengthened my belief that mission-based businesses can generate financial returns and social impact without trade-offs — and in fact can be better investments.
A few days after ‘Good Morning America’ ran a piece about a man who was in the Pentagon during the crash. There was an explosion, then heat, smoke and flames that forced him to crawl into a small closet, where he was trapped. At what seemed like the end, a fire sprinkler activated above him, dousing the flames and saving his life.
We found out at Viking Group that the Pentagon was retrofitting with our fire sprinklers and that the attack struck in the portion where construction was complete.
We proceeded to double our sales over the next five years, expand globally and prove that because of the productivity of our USA workforce and the safety benefits of our products — we had the best way to protect lives and property from fire.”
Now at City Light, Tom leverages his extensive operating experience to help entrepreneurial teams tackling some of our toughest social and environmental challenges.
Tom sits on the Board of Directors for Shotspotter-SST (NASDAQ:SSTI), Omnidian, Senet, and is a Board Observer to Xage.
JEFF RINEHART
Partner
