Overview

Gender

male

Jordan Birnbaum is a comical and captivating guy now best known for serving as ADP Ventures' vice president and chief behavioral economist. Born in the early seventies, he grew up in Great Neck, NY and ultimately launched his professional career in the nineties during the dot-com boom. Birnbaum loves animals, comedy, and writing and is devoted to his young niece and nephew. He loves entertainment and multimedia and he also thoroughly relishes the opportunity to point out the absurdity of nonsensical political notions. Being flung headfirst into commercial success at a young age, Birnbaum has learned to maintain a sense of humor during good times and bad, which has proven an invaluable tool in navigating the entrepreneurial waters of his career.


Educating Jordan Birnbaum

Jordan Birnbaum finished high school and went on to Cornell University where he concentrated in Consumer Economics and Housing while completing his Bachelor of Science degree in Policy Analysis. At Cornell University, where he was on the Dean’s List and conducted independent research with Prof. Dean Lillard, Birnbaum also spent a semester of field study with the American Red Cross, developing and implementing a homelessness intervention and prevention program.


Early Career

After university, Jordan Birnbaum joined an investment bank to gain professional experience. At D.E. Shaw & Co., Birnbaum made quite an impact and was given the responsibility of managing a substantial portfolio. He eventually played a pivotal role in the live trading of the business on the Japanese Stock Exchange. D.E. Shaw & Co. provided Birnbaum with a chance to expand on his talents and an opportunity to realize an inkling of his true range of capabilities.


Entering the Online Arena and the Entertainment Industry

After demonstrating his potential in the financial sector, Birnbaum started working in the emerging internet market, helping to launch Juno Online Services, Inc. He transformed the online-services industry when he hatched an innovative idea to boost subscriptions by means of an in-store distribution deal with the video and music conglomerate Blockbuster. This was a stepping stone to a number of very successful years at Juno where Birnbaum continued working until investing in Qtopia, a previously failing business that he transformed into the prime Los Angeles entertainment-industry venue known today as Vanguard.

Birnbaum and his co-conspirator Richard Belzer, known for his role as Munch in Law and Order SVU, discovered a shared affinity for political satire and developed The Secret Beatnik Party, a project based on a semi-farcical, off-the-grid political platform that aimed to combine live and recorded comedy with online tools and original multimedia content against the backdrop of the US presidential elections in 2012.

In 2013, Birnbaum helped found the Tawkers messaging app, which invited companies to create and share branded chats between influencers. He worked there as vice president of business development until 2014 and assisted the company in raising $1.6 million as well as in partnering with many major brands worldwide.


What is Jordan Birnbaum Currently Busy With?

In 2015, Birnbaum completed his MA in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at NYU and founded ManagEthos Consulting, which provided services to companies that included ADP Ventures.

In 2016, Birnbaum decided to join ADP Ventures itself as vice president and chief behavioral economist. Utilizing his passion and creativity to combine behavioral psychology and human-resource technology development, Birnbaum manages the development of new HCM software products, specifically Compass, a leadership and workplace collaboration platform helping employees and managers around the world to hone their work relationships and habits.

Compass has already won recognition as Human Resource Executive 2017's Top HR Product. Birnbaum generated 10% score improvements from personally-written email-based coaching curriculums and succeeded in activating more than 230 external sales clients within the first ten months of release.

In addition, Birnbaum has become an expert blogger/speaker on the intersection of behavioral economics and HR and on how to exploit that synthesis.