The Heschel School

Joshua-Marc "Josh" Bennett Tanenbaum (HS' 10) graduated from the University of Melbourne, Australia with a dual-Bachelors in Politics & International Studies and Sociology.

While in Australia, Josh founded LOCAL VIBES, a live music-oriented A&R firm that used fan data to differentiate its artists. The firm also empowered artists to become advocates for causes most meaningful to leveraging a mobile solution to raise funds direct from fans at showcases. The firm grew its presence across three continents.

After returning to New York, Josh sold the firm to an Australian music conglomerate, and he began angel investing in companies that had a "scalable social DNA". Simultaneously, Josh was interested in learning about the role of human capital in growing businesses. He joined Korn Ferry, a global organizational consulting firm, and was successively promoted to Senior Associate within the Global Asset Management & Alternative Investments Practice. During his tenure at Korn Ferry, he architected the firm's M&A capability for Asset Managers and served as a founding member of the Impact Investing Center of Expertise

Josh is now pursuing his MBA at Cornell, while also managing his early stage venture vehicle, Clearstone Enterprises. Josh says that "Clearstone seeks out companies with a scalable social DNA, meaning the more good it does, the more money it makes." Josh's focus has been supplying early capital and advice to startups addressing systemic issues facing society particular ones affecting the underserved, underbanked and small-to-medium businesses. He is particularly proud of helping SMEs become more investable using social credit factors, starting to move the needle in redistributing wealth in Bangladesh, unlocking reasonable debt capital for high achieving, low income students, and making mission-driven fixed income products accessible to the institutional investors market.

In addition to his busy professional and academic pursuits, Josh is the President of the Board of Directors for the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, Vice Chair of the Council of Young Jewish Presidents, a Board Member of the Polonsky Foundation, a Young World Fellow of the Duke of Edinburgh International Award Foundation, and an Advisory Board Member of Erb Institute at the University of Michigan Ross Business School.

Josh highlights Heschel's pivotal contribution to his underlying values: "Heschel largely influenced my worldview, teaching me how to respect and appreciate diversity of thought and background. It gave me the tools to be inclusive even if confronted with a diverging view. This holds true in business, volunteer work - quite frankly in any dimension of my life."