19 Facts About Marshall Cogan

Marshall S Cogan was born on 1937 and is an American investor and entrepreneur and former financier and trader.

Cogan was the founder of United Automotive Group, which he built into one of the largest retailers of cars and trucks in the US As a private equity investor, Cogan acquired a number of businesses in the 1970s and 1980s.

Marshall Cogan is an alumnus and benefactor of the Boston Latin School having graduated in 1955.

Marshall Cogan began building what would become Foamex International in the mid-1980s after the departure of his long-time partner Stephen Swid.

Marshall Cogan merged General Felt into Foamex and acquired Great Western Foam Co.

In 1993, Marshall Cogan created Foamex International bringing together his various businesses and took the company public in December 1993.

In 1990, Marshall Cogan founded United Automotive Group, today known as Penske Automotive Group.

Under Marshall Cogan, United Auto was a leading acquirer, consolidator and operator of automobile and truck dealership franchises.

Marshall Cogan merged his company with Roger Penske's business in May 1999 after Marshall Cogan ran into financial difficulties and the company name was changed from United Automotive to Penske Automotive in 2007.

In July 1999, Marshall Cogan's holding company, Trace International Holdings filed for bankruptcy protection.

Marshall Cogan had used Trace International to hold his controlling interests in two publicly listed companies, Foamex International and United Automotive Group.

Marshall Cogan was found by second circuit court of Delaware not guilty of all charges on June 25,2005.

Trace was a holding company through which Mr Marshall Cogan held his principal investment assets.

In 1999, Trace ran into serious financial difficulties because a major bank withdrew a $1 billion commitment to finance a restructuring of Trace and its holdings due to events, which had nothing to do with Trace or Mr Marshall Cogan that led to a serious disruption in US financing markets.

Marshall Cogan's theory was that Mr Cogan had treated Trace as a personal holding company, and had improperly taken money out of Trace in the form of unduly high salary, salaries to his wife and payments to his daughter, loans to Mr Cogan, his wife and others that had not been repaid and other expenditures for what the Trustee characterized as primarily personal purposes.

For example, it found that Mr Marshall Cogan had received salary over a six-year period totaling $39.6 million, which it said was $6.9 million more than executives with similar responsibilities would have received at other companies.

However, by then, Mr Marshall Cogan had settled the case as to himself.

In 2006, Marshall Cogan was named to the board of Ener1, a company that manufactures lithium-ion batteries for plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Marshall Cogan has served as Chairman and Director of Color Tile, Inc.