About Our Team

Prior to being named the Executive Director of the J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities at the University of Colorado Denver Business School, Dr. Thomas Brady was the Chief Economist at Newmont Mining Corporation where he was responsible for generating key commodity price, foreign exchange and other financial assumptions used throughout the company. In this role, Dr. Brady also developed methods to effectively quantify and communicate the economic impact of Newmont’s operations to host communities and countries. Prior to this position, Dr. Brady led Newmont’s Strategic Planning function that developed and implemented portfolio modeling analytics.

 

Before Newmont, Dr. Brady was a Senior Manager at Risk Capital Management, a consultancy that advised energy and natural resource companies on financial risk, valuation and commodity hedging. He has also worked with CQG, Inc. where he developed a suite of automated trading systems for commodity futures contracts using the company’s short-term, price and volume charting methods. He holds a Ph.D. in Mineral Economics with research emphases in commodity markets from the Colorado School of Mines. In addition, Dr. Brady holds a Master’s degree in Mathematics, also from the Colorado School of Mines.

Sarah is currently the Executive Director - Energy of the J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities and Energy Management where she is acting as an influential leader across different fields, building partnerships, engaging in strategic planning, and successfully overseeing a platform for energy dialogue. She has extensive experience managing business processes and driving organizational growth both domestically and internationally. She performs a wide range of high-level functions to further organizational growth.

Sarah has spent the majority of her career as a connector and convener of people, building relationships and education across all aspects of energy to ensure a “just transition” for communities and building the energy workforce of the future. She sits on many non-profit boards that support diversity in Energy including Women’s Energy Network.

Sarah is skilled at creating dialogue, programming, discussions, and partnerships that ensure we reduce our emissions while building out and innovating our human energy capital. She is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion in energy, both in fuels and people. 

Jian Yang is the J.P. Morgan endowed chair and Research Director at the J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities as well as the discipline director of finance at University of Colorado Denver. Yang is recognized as one of most prolific authors in finance during past 50 years based on core finance journal publications, and one of 15 commodities-friendly professors in the world. In addition to his research in finance that is featured by New York Times, Reuters, The Washington Post and CNBC, and over 40 medial outlets in total, Yang’s research on commodities has been cited in policy publications by World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, OECD, and presented by invitation to government agencies and major commodity exchanges, including US EIA, China Futures Association, and Shanghai Futures Exchange, among others.

 

Yang’s expertise on commodities attracts extensive media attention. His media articles (about 120) feature JPMCC in several dozen countries in multiple languages, including prominent English media outlets such as Reuters, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Forbes, World Finance magazine (U.K.), China Daily (global and U.S. editions, its European Weekly in the U.K. and African Weekly in Kenya), Australian Financial Review, and RT (the Russian international television network). The media articles are also published in major Chinese-language media outlets: Economic Daily, China National Radio, and China Securities Journal, with some of them posted on the official websites of the Chinese Central Government and its national government agencies.

Michele has been with the Global Energy Management program since 2012 and currently works directly with all current GEM students and faculty to ensure student success and retention. In addition, she manages all professional education non-credit courses for the Center.

She has played an integral role in the vision, leadership, and strategic direction of student services. Michele is responsible for ensuring faculty, student, and alumni systems operate efficiently and effectively. She handles all course instructional design, AACSB data collection and reporting, student communications, and program marketing efforts. Michele leads innovative enrollment, retention, and course analytics projects for the program to make strategic data-driven decisions. 

Michele holds a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Central Florida and a Master of Arts in Leadership: Higher Education and Student Affairs from the University of Colorado. 

Erica joined the JPMCC team as Program Manager in February 2020. Erica is responsible for commodities course administration, marketing, and student outreach. Previously, Erica worked at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. She has a BA in English Literature and Spanish Language from the University of Michigan.