Rate My Professor Jim Brau

Jim Brau is the Joel C. Peterson Professor of Finance in the Business & Economics faculty at Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Business. He earned a BS in Geography from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1991, where he was a Distinguished Cadet in the top 5% of his class academically, physically, and in leadership, and a PhD in Finance from Florida State University in 1999 as Phi Kappa Phi Outstanding Graduate Scholar. A graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger, Airborne, Air Assault, and Pathfinder schools, Brau served three years as an active duty Airborne Ranger infantry officer and additional years in the Army National Guard and Reserves before honorably discharged as Captain in 1999. Joining BYU in 1999 as Assistant Professor, he advanced to Associate Professor in 2005, Professor in 2010, and Joel C. Peterson Professor in 2015. He holds Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Financial Planner designations earned in 2004 and 2019, respectively, and serves as Major in the Utah Army National Guard’s 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne).

Brau’s research specializations include initial public offerings, entrepreneurial finance, financial education, and real estate, evidenced by 72 peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Business Venturing, and Journal of Financial Research, with an H-index of 27, i10-index of 40, and over 6,400 Google Scholar citations. Key publications encompass “The Impact of Changing Disclosure Requirements, Competition, and Private Capital on Firm Exit Methods and Premiums” (Journal of Financial Research, 2025), “Blockchain in Supply Chain Management: A Feature-Framework for Future Research” (Supply Chain Management, 2024), and “A Framework for Incorporating CFA and CFP Preparation Tracks in an Undergraduate Finance Major or MBA Program” (Advances in Financial Education, 2024). Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance since 2009 and on the editorial board of Journal of Business Venturing since 2010, he has mentored 34 students into doctoral programs and coauthored 28 peer-reviewed articles with 29 BYU students. Awards include BYU University Young Scholar Award (2005), Marriott School Outstanding Researcher Award (2004), multiple teaching awards, four best-paper awards including Journal of Real Estate Research Annual Best Paper (2007), and Army ROTC Leadership Excellence Award (2022). Brau teaches principles of finance, corporate finance, entrepreneurial finance, and financial planning at undergraduate and graduate levels, coordinates the CFP program, and serves on committees including CFA Steering and Finance Department Honors.