About
Simón Cohen is a Mexican entrepreneur best known for building Henco Global, a freight‑forwarding and supply‑chain firm that now moves more ocean containers than any other logistics operator in the country. He started the business in 1998 with a handful of colleagues and a “people‑first, profits‑second” credo that later evolved into his trademark High Performance Happy People (HPHP) culture. Thanks to that focus, Henco has landed on multiple Great Place to Work rankings, while Cohen himself was honored as “Most Trusted CEO” in 2017. In 2024 he jumped from the warehouse to prime‑time TV when he joined Shark Tank México as one of the show’s new “tiburones,” bringing a dose of upbeat energy—and logistics savvy—to the investor panel.
Before Fame
Cohen was born in Mexico City, but his family moved to Monterrey during a financial downturn. He fought chronic asthma as a child and still trained as a competitive swimmer, an activity that taught him toughness and control of his breath—abilities that he claims later served him well in high‑stress boardrooms. He graduated in International Commerce from the Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM) in 1996 and started working in his father’s textile export business. Arranging overseas shipments, he saw how unreliable many of the freight forwarders were, so at 24 years of age he set up his own company. By 1998 that side project had become Henco Global, founded on steady service, transparent pricing, and a simple promise to treat every client’s cargo “better than our own.”
A few years later, nonstop travel and 18‑hour days caught up with him. During a 2006 trip to Hong Kong he collapsed from an undiagnosed Wolf–Parkinson–White heart condition. Lying in an ambulance with his wife beside him, Cohen made a silent vow to run the company “for happiness, not only for growth.” That moment became the seed of HPHP and the pivot that still shapes his leadership style today.
Trivia
- Near‑Olympic swimmer: Before college he narrowly missed qualifying for Mexico’s national swim team, an achievement he credits for his lifelong love of early‑morning exercise.
- Book author: His memoir‑manual Pleno (2019) explains HPHP in plain Spanish and caught the attention of wellness guru Deepak Chopra, who praised its message of conscious capitalism.
- Harvard Business Review case study: Henco’s culture is dissected in the HBR podcast “Is Happiness at Work Really Attainable?,” used in MBA classrooms worldwide.
- Speaker on joy at work: Cohen travels globally as a keynote speaker, insisting that “a logistics firm can also be a happiness factory.”
Family Life
Cohen is intensely private about personal details, but interviews reveal that he has been married for more than twenty‑five years and often credits his spouse for keeping him grounded during Henco’s rapid expansion. He also speaks lovingly of his daughters—recalling that it was thoughts of “my parents, my girls, my friends” that flashed through his mind during his 2006 health scare—reinforcing his belief that business success is empty if it costs precious family moments.
The family splits time between Monterrey and occasional stays abroad when Cohen is on the conference circuit, yet he blocks out time for shared breakfasts, honest dinner conversations, and Sunday swims—a ritual he says keeps the clan close no matter how busy the week becomes.
Associated With
- Shark Tank México: Cohen joined the investor panel in Season 9 (2024) alongside Víctor González Herrera and returned for the 10th anniversary season in 2025 with fellow sharks Alejandra Ríos, Amaury Vergara, Karla Berman, Marisa Lazo, and Oswaldo Trava.
- Víctor González Herrera: Both entrepreneurs debuted on the show at the same time, bringing fresh perspectives—logistics and pharma retail, respectively—to the tank.
- Deepak Chopra: The author’s endorsement of Pleno amplified Cohen’s message that profit and purpose can coexist>
- Francesca Gino (Harvard Business School): Gino featured Cohen in a case study on sustaining a “happy people” culture during high growth, further cementing his status as a thought leader on workplace well‑being.
