Jim Brau is the Joel C. Peterson Professor of Finance at the Marriott School and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance. He received his undergraduate training at the United States Military Academy at West Point (Class of 1991) and served three years as an active duty Airborne Ranger infantry officer in the United States Army and another five years in the Florida Army National Guard and Army Reserves. While in the reserves, Jim earned his PhD from Florida State University in business administration and finance with a support area in econometrics. Jim joined the Marriott School faculty at BYU in April 1999 and was honorably discharged as an Army Captain in June 1999. In 2004, Jim earned the Charted Financial Analyst designation and in 2019 he earned the Certified Financial PlannerTM designation. In 2022, Jim was recommissioned into the Utah Army National Guard and serves in the rank of Captain in the 4th Infantry Division Main Command Post – Operational Detachment.
Jim’s research interests include issues pertaining to initial public offerings, entrepreneurial finance, financial education, and real estate. He currently has a scholarship H-Index of 26, an i10-Index of 34, over 5,500 citations, and over 122,000 reads on ResearchGate (as of May 2023). He has over 130 academic presentations and published 69 peer-reviewed articles to include articles in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Business, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Real Estate Economics and Finance, and Journal of Real Estate Research among others.
He teaches principles of finance, corporate finance, entrepreneurial finance, and financial planning to university-wide students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. His current courses include Principles of Finance (Fin 201), Pre-PhD Individual Study (Fin 490r/MBA 693r), Financial Planning/CFP Prep (Fin 418), Advanced Corporate Finance (EMBA 693AF), and Entrepreneurial Finance (EMBA 693EF). Jim has directly recruited and mentored 31 students who have begun doctoral programs. As part of his pre-PhD mentoring, Jim has worked with 27 BYU students as coauthors on 26 peer-reviewed articles. In total, he has worked with 120 RAs and 102 TAs at BYU.
Along with serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance since 2009, Jim has served on the editorial review board of the Journal of Business Venturing since 2010 and previously served on the editorial review boards of Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice for eight years (2005-2012) and Financial Decisions for 18 years (2001-2018). In addition to peer-reviewed articles, Jim has coauthored eight textbooks: Principles of Finance: Intuition and Analysis, Financial Analysis and Management (for MBAs), Finance Skills for Managers, Financial Markets and Instruments, MBA Prep: Finance, Principles of Finance with Excel, Financial Analysis in Python, and Introduction to Modern Business.
Among his awards are West Point Distinguished Cadet (top 5% of Senior class in academics, physical fitness, and leadership), West Point dean’s list all eight semesters, FSU Phi Kappa Phi Outstanding Graduate Scholar Award (Valedictorian), three FSU teaching awards (one college level and two university level), seven BYU teaching awards (five department level and two college level), three BYU research awards (two department level and one college level), three BYU outstanding citizen awards (one department level and two university level), four best-paper awards, 21 lead-articles, and the BYU University Young Scholar Award (university-wide).
Jim consults with firms, NGOs, entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists. His consulting focuses on corporate finance/financial management, start-up financing, venture valuation, business plan construction, and harvest strategies. Jim also serves as an expert witness in finance-related lawsuits.
Jim married Michelle (West) in 1991 in the Jordan River Temple. Michelle (AA Fashion Production and Management from Columbus Technical College) is currently working on her undergraduate degree at BYU in Family Studies and is enjoying her career as a mother and grandmother. They are the parents of six children (two by marriage) and one granddaughter. Bekki (BS Business BYU, MS Instructional Psychology BYU, PhD Supply Chain Management Univ Arkansas) is an assistant Supply Chain professor in the Marriott School of Business at BYU. She is married to Kamiko Adcock (BS Economics BYU) who is the film teacher at Copper Hills High School. Kamiko is the founder of KIN Entertainment LLC and the Sweet Film Talk podcast (https://www.sweetfilmtalk.com/). Jameson (BA Philosophy with minors in Human Development and Military Science BYU, MS Organizational Leadership CU-Boulder) is an Army veteran and law student at Gonzaga Law. Brigham (BS Accounting and BS Economics BYU) is a UNC Accounting PhD student. He is married to AJ (Call). AJ graduated from Bottega University and is the founder and CEO of Wander Inc (https://www.wandermaps.com/). They are the parents of one daughter. Heber (BS Computer Science WGU) is a software and embedded systems engineer and cofounder and CTO of Tribyte LLC, a software development firm. In his free time, Jim enjoys family activities, bodybuilding, reading, writing, and 1980s country music.
