Round Hill CEO Josh Gruss has established the Josh Gruss/Round Hill Music Endowed Scholarship Fund with a $1 million donation to Berklee College.
Berklee honoraries include names such as Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, Doug Morris, Julio Iglesias and more.
The fund will financially and academically support students majoring in Music Business and Management.
Alongside being the CEO, chairman, and founder of Round Hill Music, Gruss is a Berklee College of Music alumnus and Berklee trustee.
Gruss has a background in finance, having worked in investment banking at Bear Stearns & Co., before founding his own private investment firm, Gruss & Co., in New York City.
Gruss’s experience in the music industry features stints at Sony Music, Atlantic Records, and Clear Channel’s Live Music Division.
Gruss is the first Berklee alumni to take a company public on the London Stock Exchange, with Round Hill Music’s IPO in November of 2020.
Gruss attended Berklee on campus from 1995 to 1998 to study guitar and music business, and has since taken over a dozen Berklee Online classes.
Gruss has been a Berklee Trustee for seven years, where his “influence and leadership has helped guide Berklee into a new era of success,” says a press release from Round Hill Music.
During that time, Gruss has supported the development of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs), where students can sample Berklee and its educational facilities for free.
While annually employing a number of Berklee alumni and student interns at Round Hill Music, Gruss also helped establish Berklee’s partnership with Rimon School of Music, a program that enables students to begin their music education at Rimon in Israel and complete an undergraduate degree at Berklee in Boston.
The Josh Gruss/Round Hill Music Endowed Scholarship Fund will aid multiple students on an annual basis with financial assistance in pursuing Music Business and Management degrees.
The Fund seeks to assist students from underrepresented groups who are financially and academically deserving and will be chosen on a committee basis.
“Josh has always been a staunch advocate of [Berklee’s] Music Business/Management Department.”
Tonya Butler, Berklee
Tonya Butler, chair of Berklee’s Music Business/Management Department, said: “Josh has always been a staunch advocate of the Music Business/Management Department and music business education in general.
“My work with him on the MOOC course Copyright and Revenue Streams for Musicians, as well as this incredibly generous gift, are just two of many examples of how much he cares about our students and is willing to contribute his time and money to see them succeed.”
“Diversity and equality are core values of Round Hill.”
Josh Gruss
Josh Gruss, added: “After all that Berklee has done for me, to help develop me as a musician and a music business person, it’s a thrill to be able to give back.
“Diversity and equality are core values of Round Hill, and so it is wonderful that the Round Hill scholarship will help ensure underrepresented students get financial aid to come to Berklee.”
In July, Round Hill’s publicly-traded UK fund raised USD $86.5 million in a fresh share placing.
This figure easily exceeded its minimum target of a $50 million raise.Music Business Worldwide
