When Shay Brokemond moved into investment banking, it was a big shift. “I worked in engineering and project management in my early career,” said Brokemond, who holds both a bachelor’s in physics and a masters in electrical engineering. But when she entered the MBA program at the Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, she shifted her focus toward banking. That decision enabled her to forge a rewarding career at the nexus of two different worlds. And now she’s making another big change: trading the corporate world for the classroom and leading a bold new era of investment banking education at Gies College of Business.
Brokemond will be joining Rob Metzger, Stephen V. and Christy C. King Faculty Fellow and clinical professor of finance, as a co-director of Orange & Blue Ventures, a new student-led, venture capital investing initiative that will fund innovation at Illinois while preparing students for exciting investing careers. Students accepted into the program will join a dynamic fund management team, investing real money in real startups, while gaining valuable insights from faculty and other industry professionals. Orange & Blue Ventures is an expansion of the programming delivered through the Origin Ventures Office of Entrepreneurship – a key player in the innovation ecosystem at Illinois. Much of the Office’s programming, such as the iVenture Accelerator, supports student- and faculty-led startups at Illinois with funding and other resources.
“We’ll be educating students on the business and practice of venture capital investing,” said Brokemond, who will be co-teaching the program’s prerequisite course, FIN 426: Introduction to Early-Stage Investing. “A primary objective of the course will be training students to think like a venture investor – connecting the dots between finance and strategy and providing a framework for evaluating early-stage investment opportunities.”
Brokemond honed those skills at William Blair, a multinational investment banking and financial services company headquartered in Chicago where she served as managing director. For 16 years, she handled mergers and acquisitions for companies in a wide range of industries.
“We were primarily focused on emerging growth companies,” said Brokemond. “However, I had an opportunity to work with a number of early-stage businesses and decided I wanted to shift in that direction.”
That led to 11.2 Ventures, a venture studio building and funding technological startups. “11.2 was a startup building startups. As 11.2 worked to build, launch, and grow businesses, the company encountered many of the challenges that young companies face.”
From there, she moved on to a large, family-owned company, whose rapidly expanding business ventures included companies in aviation, manufacturing, hospitality, and robotics. Her institutional expertise in scaling business through acquisitions made her the perfect choice for the job.
“I came in as interim CFO of their aviation business before transitioning to lead corporate development for the family of businesses,” said Brokemond, who helped steer the company through numerous acquisitions. But eventually, she decided she was ready for something more.
“I feel like now I'm at the stage in my life where I’m focused more on legacy and impact,” said Brokemond. Orange & Blue Ventures offers the perfect opportunity to scratch that itch, allowing her to use her experience while helping develop startups at Illinois, which often have a strong technological bent. At the same time, she’ll be shaping the next generation of business leaders. And she already knows the lesson she wants to teach.
“I want students to walk away from this experience feeling like they can assess an early-stage investment opportunity and have a real, credible opinion,” said the Brokemond. “I want to cultivate the ability to question assumptions, evaluate options, and ultimately make decisions based on less-than-perfect information.”
Her vision for the program goes far beyond the classroom. “I want to see Orange & Blue Ventures truly enhance the entrepreneurial ecosystem at the university – improving outcomes for students and startups and creating additional opportunities to engage alumni.”
That vast ecosystem was a big draw for Brokemond, as well as the opportunity to join forces with Metzger, a former business colleague who’s been a finance professor at Gies Business for more than a decade. “Rob and I worked together at William Blair, so I’m excited to be co-teaching the class and overseeing the fund with him,” said Brokemond. “He’s a tremendous asset to Gies.”
While interviewing for her new position, Brokemond said there was one other thing that really stood out to her, and that was the school’s emphasis on access. “It’s one of the core principles at Gies Business and something that certainly resonates with me,” said Brokemond. “So often throughout my career, I was the only person who looked like me in the room. The commitment to access is just one more thing that makes Gies a world-class institution.”