Jim Brandau

Managing Director, Wealth Advisor
Board Member, Penn State Smeal College of Business Board of Visitors

Jim Brandau '03 managing director, is a wealth advisor at William Blair.  Jim and his team manage assets for private business owners, business executives, endowments, foundations, and high-net-worth investors. 

Jim has spent 20 years advising clients in the private wealth management space.  Before joining William Blair, he was a managing director at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. from 2014 to 2022, where he helped expand the Philadelphia practice from $4 billion to $9 billion in assets under management.  Earlier in his career, Jim worked at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management from 2005 to 2014, serving substantial private business owners and corporate executives. At the time, he and his partners managed more than $1.7 billion in assets for foundations and high net-worth families. Jim began his career in 2003 as an analyst at J.P. Morgan Private Bank.

Jim received a B.S. in finance from Pennsylvania State University and an M.B.A. from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jim currently serves as a director on the following boards: the Philadelphia Orchestra (investment committee), the Philadelphia Academy of Music, the Penn State Endowment, the Penn State Smeal School of Business Board of Visitors, and the Nittany Lion Fund (board chairman). Jim, his wife Micaela, and sons Max, Charlie, and Jack reside in Wayne, Pennsylvania.