For our next Guest in Classroom session, the MBA students had the pleasure of hearing from Kenneth Brenneman, Vice President at Goldman Sachs AIMS Group. What is more, he is an alumnus from our MBA International Management program!

Born and raised in Wyoming, USA, Kenneth Brenneman comes with a wealth of international experience across multiple business lines. From working in Norway to studying in Germany, he has a wealth of experience which is partially listed: Sinclair Oil Company, founded and sold two companies, interned with a bulge bracket bank, and consulted for multiple international companies.

After giving a brief background of Goldman Sachs’ history, Kenneth Brenneman hosted an open-dialogue presentation that encouraged questions and discussion from the students.  With a high interest in debt functionalities, the students inquired on his experience from the investment sector.

Kenneth covered a wide variety of topics regarding Goldman Sachs from a very high level, including his specialty of deal brokering, covering asset management to consumer finance underneath the newly created Marcus, named for a Goldman Sachs founder. (Here consumers can automate investing, start saving, apply for loans, and unlock insights to optimize their money.)

Other topics covered by Kenneth Brenneman included client relationships and how to select the best people to support a goal, putting specific emphasis on teamwork and culture.

As any alumnus from the MBA International Management program, Kenneth Brenneman gave useful advice to the students on how to succeed in Germany. For those specifically interested in the financial realm, taking the investment banking courses along with all financial work, Excel, and some consulting coursework is vital. And finally, but perhaps the most important, is to maintain the German language coursework and skills offered by the university!

text /screenshot: Gabrielle Boimann, Class of 2022