Russ Rosenzweig

Russ W. Rosenzweig is an executive, entrepreneur, author and speaker. He is best known for being one of the pioneering architects of the “expert witness search/referral” industry 25 years ago and is the co-founder and CEO of Round Table Group, the world’s first and largest expert witness search and referral firm. Conceived and launched from his Northwestern University dorm room, Russ served as its CEO from 1993 until the acquisition of the company by Thomson Reuters in 2010. He grew revenues from $0 to $25m, created a client base that included 100% of the AmLaw 100 law firms, and engineered an 8-figure acquisition. Round Table Group was elected an unprecedented 6 times in the Inc. Magazine 500/5000 list of the fastest growing private companies in the US and was profiled in numerous press stories including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Fortune Magazine, and in three Stanford University case studies. In 2019, in a role reprisal, Mr. Rosenzweig re-acquired the Thomson Reuters Expert Witness Services, re-named it back to Round Table Group, and once again serves as its CEO. Prior to re-acquiring the company, Russ was an executive at Expert Capital Partners, a broker of litigation financing, where he closed over $10m in financing transactions.

Advisor to the University of Chicago Office of the Provost. After 25 years of advising individual faculty members all over the world on commercial engagements, Russ now formally coaches and advises the faculty at the University of Chicago where he facilitates faculty leadership peer forums, designs curricula for faculty development, and leads workshops on a range of topics relevant to professors and department chairs in their leadership roles. Beyond the University of Chicago, Russ serves as an advisor to numerous professors, deans and provosts related to their non-academic commercial activities.

Adjunct Professor, Speaker and Author. Russ addresses audiences of entrepreneurs, CEOs, lawyers, academics, and MBA students on a variety of topics ranging from expert witness search/referral best practices to customer acquisition/marketing techniques to topics at the intersection of leadership and “personal mastery” such as time/energy/attention management; “getting things done” more effectively and handling overwhelming stress; managing and controlling thoughts, worries, anxieties; de-escalating emotions; developing personal and organizational vision/mission/values; integrating service and philanthropy into a busy professional practice. His workshops draw from a rich body of business strategy literature, combined with the canon of Eastern and Western literary classics and the sacred texts of all faiths. His stories and insights are informed by deep friendships with professors, Zen preceptors, Christian clergy, rabbis, Sufi Sheiks, and gurus all over the world. Russ received advanced training in India with Swami Parthasarathi, and he attained knowledge of the application of Hindu and Buddhist teachings to Western leadership techniques via pilgrimages to Tibetan Buddhist holy sites in the Himalayas. Mr. Rosenzweig is an adjunct faculty member at the IIT Institute of Design where he taught classes on marketing and business strategy.

Corporate innovation. An authority on innovation and entrepreneurship within law firms and public companies, Mr. Rosenzweig co-created the “Internal Venture Marketplace” framework with Professor Harry L. Davis, the former Dean of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and is the co-author, with Professor Davis, of an article on the topic published in The Virtual Strategist, an academic journal. Currently he collaborates with Prof. David J. Teece (UC Berkeley Haas School) and Prof. Daniel Diermeier (Provost, University of Chicago) on a venture dedicated to helping global companies to innovate more effectively: the Silicon Valley Institute for Business Innovation.

Middle East Peace Initiatives. Russ is the founder of World Ventures Group, a non-profit dedicated to using commerce and entrepreneurship to reduce global conflicts. Specifically, WVG hires Palestinian professionals to provide marketing services to US clients. WVG also promotes the Palestinian Territories as a new hub for outsourcing, and particularly focuses on engagements where Jewish business leaders and Palestinian professionals are engaged in business together. WVG is also involved in collaborative medical missions in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Mr. Rosenzweig serves as an advisor to numerous Jewish-Arab projects and is steadfastly dedicated to achieving peace in the Middle East.

Early Career. Earlier in his career, Mr. Rosenzweig served as a consultant at the management consulting practice of PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Chicago where he advised Sony Music in the US and the UK. While in college, Mr. Rosenzweig was the youngest corporate finance analyst intern at Alpha Capital Venture Partners, a venture capital firm in Chicago, where he focused on providing debt and equity financing to middle market public and private companies.

Academic credentials. Mr. Rosenzweig holds a BA in economics and mathematical methods in the social sciences from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He also holds Certificates in Literature from the University of Chicago Graham School (Basic Program), in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge, and in French Studies from the University of Paris (Sorbonne).

Hobbies, interests, affiliations. Mr. Rosenzweig is an active member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) where he served as President of the Chicago Chapter and chair of the EO Global Learning Committee. He is also a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, the University Club of Chicago, the Conscious Capitalist organization, and the Young President’s Organization (YPO). He is also a board member and advisor to the Center for Global Leadership at the University of California, Irvine’s Merage School of Business. Russ enjoys jazz and classical music, spicy ethnic food, cycling, skiing, squash, and is an accomplished amateur clarinetist. He currently resides in San Francisco and Newport Beach with his wife, the artist Lucy Liu Rosenzweig.