A Campaign for Success

If leading a life rich in personal, professional and community success is a balancing act, then Larry Cohen, president of Glyphix, has been successfully walking that tightrope all of his adult life.

The incoming chair of the Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance’s Young Division Cabinet hopes to involve more young adults in Federation activities. He was recently chosen as the winner of the Young Leadership Award, which will be presented on Sept. 20, when the Valley Alliance board meeting convenes.

Cohen, who has stepped up his involvement with Valley Alliance in recent years, finds the Young Leadership Division an exciting place to be. He chaired the VIP Couples event and worked as the Division’s treasurer. On June 16, Cohen helped organize a private Ben-Gurion Society dinner.

Cohen is looking forward to using his new role as Young Division Cabinet chair to find new ways of getting young Jewish professionals involved, as well as strengthening the bond between the Federation and Valley-area day schools. “The Federation has been very responsive in helping support growth in Conejo Valley,” Cohen said, “and I’m hoping we can continue working as a team.”

Cohen has a flair for leadership. He oversees ad campaigns at Glyphix, a Woodland Hills-based strategic design firm specializing in corporate identities, collateral material, CD-ROMs and Web sites.

His longtime affair with the written word grew following college, when he penned “College Graduate’s Survival Guide.” This led to his contribution of quirky poems, alongside Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein, to several children’s anthologies, one of which was adapted as a CBS after-school special. Cohen’s writing gigs led to freelance copywriting and, eventually, a full-blown advertising career.

“I never really thought about a career in advertising,” Cohen said. “In hindsight, I was, like, ‘Duh, that made a lot of sense.’ Jewish kids are typically raised to be doctors and lawyers. Now I’m like, ‘This is the greatest job in the world.'”

With art director Brad Wilder, Cohen created Wordsmiths Advertising, a firm that ran for nine years before expanding into Glyphix, touted last year by Inc. Magazine as one of California’s 69 fastest-growing private companies. “We don’t rely on each other to get jobs done,” said Wilder, Cohen’s creative partner since their Hamilton High School days at the Federalist.

Cohen grew up in Beverlywood and attended Hillel Hebrew Academy and Hamilton before shlepping East to major in finance at Boston University. He had always maintained a strong sense of Jewish identity, which really developed during his BU days.

“When I was in Boston I was at a Chabad group. It wasn’t so much religious as it was cultural,” said Cohen, who got involved after meeting the center’s rabbi, Abba Perlmutter, one day on a street corner. They became fast friends, and the Chabadnik’s influence on Cohen’s life was not exclusive, as Cohen urged Perlmutter to go west many years ago. Perlmutter now works at Shul by the Shore in Newport Beach.

Now 38, Cohen resides in West Hills with his wife, Laura, and their children, Rachel, 5 and Adam, 3. The Cohens enjoy a close affiliation with Temple Aliyah and with Heschel West, the school where their kids are enrolled. In addition to having an active family life, Cohen lends his energies to a host of extracurricular activities. He sits on the board of Horizon Bank, opening in January, which will focus on assisting small businesses.

Fellow Young Leadership Cabinet member and Federation Board member Gary Dubin, who by day works in fundraising for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, appreciates the effort Cohen made to keep Cabinet members close by organizing a weekly basketball game.

“Larry’s the kind of guy to sit out in a game to make sure that everyone gets to get in there. He really believes in teamwork,” Dubin said. “He often proves his leadership ability by taking a backseat and promoting others.”

Working for the Alliance is natural for Cohen, who, since childhood, has held an affinity for the Federation. His father, Lazer Cohen, worked there as an executive.

“When I was 7 or 8 years old, I went with my dad to Sacramento when he went to get money for the Meals on Wheels program,” Cohen recalled. “That was a very one-on-one real experience.”