the Wond'ry

Cynthia Cohen is Founder and Chief Strategist of IMPACT 2040, a new breed of strategic consulting firm helping clients navigate the pathway from ideation to scaling for profitable growth and ultimately a successful exit.  Her passion is working with startup and emerging growth business entrepreneurs who are innovating and disrupting their target market. Cynthia brings a depth of expertise in business strategy, marketing positioning, target marketing and operational planning to all her clients. She was a Partner in Management Consulting at Deloitte and after that built her own successful retail and consumer product consulting firm, Strategic Mindshare, before focusing on early stage companies. Cynthia advises several venture capital firms and has worked with Golden Seeds, Springboard, and EY’s Winning Women on judging and CEO training. She’s been a national judge for EY’s  Entrepreneur of the Year award and many college level business plan competitions. 

Over the course of her career Cynthia has served on 12 public company boards of directors and numerous private company boards.  She is a corporate governance expert and is a qualified financial expert for Audit Committees.   

Cynthia is a graduate of Boston University where she currently is a Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees. Boston University has honored her as Innovate@BU’s 2023 Mentor of the Year award and as a recipient of Questrom’s Henry Morgan Award. 

In 2024, she established the Cynthia Cohen Impact 2040 fund to sponsor the Founder Program with the Wond’ry at Vanderbilt University.

To meet with Cynthia, or any of our excellent mentors, please fill out this interest form.