The partnership
Cohen Waldman & Associates is owned and run by its principals. The Firm's value is the combined credibility of a small, senior partnership plus an institutionalized method — not any single name.
Principals
Walter Cohen, Jonathan Waldman, and Lurdes de Sousa bring complementary experience across capital-markets strategy, cross-border advisory work, diplomacy, governance, and international institutions.
Additional founding principals — covering Francophone and North African relationships for the Africa and France–Maghreb corridors — are being confirmed.
The Firm is structured as a true partnership, with equity vesting tied to origination and delivery, so value accrues to the working partnership and the practice survives any single name.
To prevent the patron-capture that has ended other intermediary firms, no single client should exceed approximately forty percent of Firm revenue — the dual-anchor discipline that keeps the Firm independent in fact, not just in name.
The Firm's senior advisory board provides gravitas and network reach without running day-to-day operations or owning the core intellectual property of the practice. Members are drawn from former officials, central bankers, and ambassadors with standing across the relevant regions; they are appointed for their judgment and their access, and they are bound by the same standards of discretion as the partners. Members will be listed here as appointed.
We do not discuss our clients or our engagements. Our reputation is built on discretion.