Marriott School's James Brau to deliver BYU devotional address March 1

PROVO, Utah – Feb 25, 2011 – James Brau, a professor of finance in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University, will be speaking about "Spiritual Thoughts in the Classroom" at the weekly campus devotional Tuesday, March 1, at 11:05 a.m. in the Marriott Center.

The devotional will be broadcast live on the BYU Broadcasting channels and online at byub.org. Rebroadcast and archive information will be available at byub.org/devotionals or speeches.byu.edu.

Brau received his undergraduate training at the United States Military Academy at West Point and served for three years as an Airborne Ranger infantry officer in the United States Army and another five years in the Army National Guard and Army Reserves. While in the Reserves, Brau earned a doctorate from Florida State University in business administration and finance. He joined the Marriott School faculty in 1999 and was honorably discharged as an army captain that same year. In 2004 he earned the Charted Financial Analyst designation.

His research interests include issues pertaining to initial public offerings, entrepreneurial finance and real estate. He teaches corporate and entrepreneurial finance at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Brau is also the editor of the Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance. Among his academic awards are West Point Distinguished Cadet, West Point dean's list, the FSU Phi Kappa Phi Outstanding Graduate Scholar Award, several FSU and BYU teaching awards and best-paper awards and the BYU Young Scholar Award.