"If we don’t constantly seek to improve ourselves, we won’t increase our 'value'"
What Fortissimo Capital is an Israel-based $1.6 billion private equity fund that specializes in investments in high-tech and industrial companies, and Marc has been a partner at the fund since its inception in 2004. (Some of the fund’s prominent exits have included investments in SodaStream, Komit, NUR Macroprinters, Cadent, AOD, and Starhome.) Prior to joining Fortissimo, Marc was the managing director of Jerusalem Global, and later part of the founding team of a spin-off. Prior to moving to Israel and joining Jerusalem Global, Marc served as a senior corporate attorney at the New York offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, where he led several Israel-related transactions and represented leading financial institutions.
Where Marc was born and raised in New York, received his BA from Yeshiva University, and then his JD from the University of Pennsylvania. He made aliyah in September 1997 directly to Beit Shemesh, where he still resides. He and his wife, Tamar, have five children (ages 18–29) and two grandchildren.
Why How many people do you know who write seforim, learn three-plus hours a day, maintain close relationships with gedolei hador, and proliferate Torah on the Internet — all while running a billion-dollar private equity fund? Well, Marc Lesnick does. He’s a brilliant businessman who’s deeply rooted in learning and teaching Torah and inspiring others to lead a Torah-centered life. Furthermore, he synthesizes his Torah knowledge and business acumen to teach a course on Jewish business ethics, and for the past seven years, he’s been giving a weekly Shabbos shiur to soldiers in his community. In fact, he was so passionate about Rabbi Shalom Rosner’s parshah shiurim that he spent countless hours compiling the content himself, turning it into the recently published sefer, Shalom Rav. He also has a strong personal relationship with Rav Asher Weiss, which developed after a chance encounter at a kosher hotel in Switzerland where they were both staying one summer. He’s created a website entirely dedicated to disseminating Rav Asher Weiss’s hundreds of shiurim to Jews all over the world, and as busy as he is, makes sure to drive Rav Weiss home from his weekly Thursday night shiur in Ramot. Marc attests that the relationship has had a tremendous impact not only on him but on his entire family.
My father is a businessman who founded and manages an equipment leasing company. He’s also a rabbi who received his semichah from Rav Gustman ztz”l. Each night my father would study Gemara for several hours after he returned from work, and he would teach a Gemara shiur on Shabbos. He was the one who taught me the importance of combining business and the study and practice of Torah.
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