James C. Brau
Jim Brau is the Joel C. Peterson Professor of Finance at the Marriott School and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, an Army officer in the Utah National Guard, and the Provo Police Department Chaplain. 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 in April 1999 and was honorably discharged as an Army Captain in June 1999. In 2004, Jim earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and in 2019 he earned the Certified Financial Planner® designation. In May 2022, Jim was recommissioned into the Utah Army National Guard and currently serves in the rank of Major. In January 2025 he earned a Certificate of Chaplaincy and became the Provo Police Department volunteer chaplain.
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 27, an i10-Index of 39, 6,600+ citations, and over 121,000 reads on ResearchGate. He has 130+ academic presentations and published over 70 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. In addition to peer-reviewed articles, Jim has coauthored or is coauthoring 21 textbooks.
Jim 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 (Fin 418), MBA Finance (EMBA 520), Advanced Corporate Finance (EMBA 693AF), Independent Study Financial Management (MSB 250), and Entrepreneurial Finance (EMBA 693EF). Jim has directly recruited and mentored 35 students who have begun doctoral programs. As part of his pre-PhD mentoring, Jim has worked with 29 BYU students as coauthors on 28 peer-reviewed articles. In total, he has worked with 142 RAs and 137 TAs at BYU (Sep 2026).
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 board of Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice (2005-2012) and Financial Decisions (2001-2018).
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), eight BYU teaching awards (six 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 enjoying her career as a stay-at-home mother and grandmother (https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-brau/). They are the parents of seven children (three by marriage), one granddaughter, and one grandson. Bekki (BS Business Management & MS Instructional Psychology BYU, PhD Supply Chain Management Univ Arkansas) is a Supply Chain assistant professor in the Marriott School of Business at BYU (https://bekkibrau.com). She is married to Kamiko Ho’okano (BS Economics BYU) who works as a movie producer. Kamiko is the founder of KIN Entertainment LLC and the Sweet Film Talk podcast (https://www.sweetfilmtalk.com/, https://www.linkedin.com/in/kamiko-hookano/). Jameson (BA Philosophy with minors in Human Development and Military Science/Leadership BYU, MS Organizational Leadership CU-Boulder, JD Gonzaga Law) is a licensed attorney, Army veteran, and a student in the Kansas State University PhD program in Personal Financial Planning. He is married to Aysa (Klocke) (https://www.linkedin.com/in/aysaklocke/) (BA Int’l Studies with minors in Spanish and Legal Studies Univ Oregon, JD Gonzaga Law) who works as a Utah Appellate Law Clerk Attorney. Brigham (BS Accounting and BS Economics BYU; MS Mgmt & PhD Accounting UNC) is an assistant professor at Penn State University (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brigham-brau/). He is married to AJ (Call). AJ graduated from Bottega University in Software Engineering and is the founder and CEO of Wander Inc (https://www.wandermaps.com/). They are the parents of two children. Heber (BS Computer Science BYU/WGU, current UVU Master of Computer Science student) is a software engineer and cofounder of neoglitch studios, an indie game studio. In addition to software engineering, Heber is a professional voice talent (https://herbglitch.com/) and a sound engineer. Heber is currently applying to CS PhD programs. In his free time, Jim enjoys family activities, bodybuilding, reading, writing, and 1980s country music.
