Andy Tarsy has spent thirty years building relationships, coalitions, and institutions that produce outcomes others can't replicate — measured in reach, relevance, results, and revenue; measured in access and impact. His approach is rare: Andy listens first. Then he helps you get aligned — your vision, your values, your operation. Then he helps you build the relationships and connections that turn that alignment into impact and advantage.
Before law school, he worked for a boutique consulting firm focused on improving critical public infrastructure, producing research that was cited in a U.S. Supreme Court opinion on the right to counsel. He then joined the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as a Trial Attorney, where he investigated and litigated civil rights violations across the country.
He later served as Executive Director of the Anti-Defamation League of New England, where he strengthened a pre-eminent organization by fortifying its financial and strategic focus, attracting a new generation of leaders, and innovating with new ideas and legacy programs. He also made an internationally recognized public stand on Armenian genocide recognition that cost him his job and cemented his reputation for doing what principled leadership actually requires.
He has since co-founded and led the Alliance for Business Leadership, which brought more than 200 business leaders into learning and action around public policy issues that were rarely on the agenda of traditional industry groups. He served as President of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, leading the effort to get a landmark institution built, open, and ready to serve at a critical moment for American democracy. He co-founded the Massachusetts Business Immigration Coalition, and led a strategy initiative in the commercial real estate sector at WeWork Boston with the goal of engaging the entire market in a diverse city that was called out by the new CEO in 2020 as a national best practice.
Andy offers direct counsel and honest guidance that puts the client in a position to succeed on their own — and when an engagement calls for it, deploys the Emblem Network: a carefully assembled group of deeply aligned experts who bring the same seriousness to the work that he does, and often completely different kinds of expertise and social capital.
Meet the Emblem Network →
Recently, he has taught Ethics and Leadership at Boston University's Questrom School of Business and Civil Liberties and Civil Rights at Merrimack College. Andy currently serves as Fellow with the LEADS Network, and is a Trustee at Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology — in addition to acting in community theater and coaching youth soccer and softball.
