Richard Kirshenbaum ’83

Author

CEO

NSG/SWAT

In 1987, at age 26, Richard Kirshenbaum co-founded Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners (KBP), which pioneered such innovative concepts as the pop-up store, sidewalk advertising and other forms of high-visibility “guerrilla marketing.” At the time of its sale, KBP was the largest independent ad agency in the United States, with $1 billion in billing.

In 2011, Kirshenbaum launched NSG/SWAT, a boutique branding agency that works with entrepreneurs and emerging companies. He is also co-founder, with music icon Chris Blackwell, of Blackwell Fine Jamaican Rum.

Kirshenbaum has been named to Crain’s New York Business “40 Under Forty” list and inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame (2000), and placed second on a list of top U.S. entrepreneurs. He is the author of “Under the Radar,” “Closing the Deal,” “Madboy” (a memoir) and “Isn’t that Rich?” a compilation of essays he wrote for the New York Observer, which was a top ten bestseller on Amazon. His plays have been produced by David Mamet’s Atlantic Theater Company, he has also contributed to Us Weekly’s “Fashion Police” feature and he has written comedy for the legendary Joan Rivers, among others.