Jourdan Urbach is an award-winning violinist, composer and social entrepreneur; currently CTO of the social video platform “ocho,” and founding Partner at VASUdeva. Jourdan is a graduate of the Juilliard School and Yale University.

In 1998, Jourdan founded his first non-profit, Children Helping Children, in order to leverage his early music success into funds for children stricken with neurological illnesses. One of the early true social enterprise models, CHC raised well over $5 million for the international medical community.

Bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, Jourdan went on to start more than half a dozen independently successful for-profit and not-for-profit ventures like collegephilanthropy.org and DevHound.

After winning the National Jefferson Award, our nation's highest honor for public service, Jourdan came on board as National Director to help the organization pivot from a focus on volunteerism towards a modern suite of social entrepreneurism programming.

When he left the Jefferson Awards, Jourdan co-founded Ocho, a social video platform. Ocho is a mobile app that re-imagines human connection through short-form video.

As a violinist and composer, Jourdan has headlined at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the United Nations, Le Poisson Rouge, and The Bitter End, as well as at the Kravitz Center, Palm Beach, Hill Auditorium, Anne Arbor, Woolsey Hall, New Haven, The Sottile Theater, Charleston, Associated Television International in Los Angeles (Hero Awards), Madison Square Garden, NY, The Meadowlands, NJ, and at music festivals across the country. Jourdan is featured on Steve Martin’s Grammy-winning album The Crow. As a film composer, his high-profile work has been highlighted at Tribeca & Cannes.

Jourdan plays an 1850 Vuillaume courtesy of Charles Beares, and a custom Viper by Mark Wood. He is honored to serve as a Goodwill Ambassador to the UN Arts for Peace Council.

When he gets a free moment, Jourdan often does public speaking at events/locales such as TedX, Ashoka, The UN Youth Assembly, and Nexus. He is the winner of The World of Children “Nobel” Award for Global Child Advocacy, Tribeca’s Disruptive Innovation Award, Artist Ascending , The NYC Liberty Medal, and the MLK Jr. Humanitarian Award for NY State among others. Jourdan resides in Murray Hill, Manhattan and spends his free time rock climbing, playing chamber music, and training in Muay Thai. He is honored to serve on the New York boards of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers and the Harmony Program.