George Grant

Commerce Student at the McIntire School of Commerce | Head of Marketing with Big Kitchen Hospitality | Aspiring Portfolio Manager

Midlothian, Virginia, United States

About

I'm a rising senior at the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce, studying finance. My path here wasn't conventional. I spent two years at Brightpoint Community College first, graduating with a 4.0 before transferring to McIntire, and that experience taught me to take nothing for granted about being in the room. Most of my work right now sits on the investing side. I'm a remote analyst at Blue Ace Ventures, an early-stage fund focused on AI, photonics, and robotics, where I source and screen founders, build first-pass diligence memos, and help develop the fund's scoring framework and CRM workflow. Before McIntire, I spent time at Heritage Wealth Advisors on the private investments team, diligencing fund managers across private credit, real estate, private equity, growth equity, and venture capital. On the academic side, I've gravitated toward the projects that look most like real investing work: a multi-method equity valuation of Mercury Systems concluding 48.8% downside to the market, a $5.86B M&A pitch of Johnson & Johnson acquiring TransMedics built around a full standalone-plus-post-acquisition DCF stack, and a corporate-sponsored modality expansion project for [solidcore] where I led the financial workstream. I'm also Head of Marketing at Big Kitchen Hospitality, an eight-restaurant group based in Richmond, where I own brand voice and content strategy across the portfolio, a role I grew into after starting as a logistics consultant working on COGS and BOH operations. Targeting full-time roles in institutional asset management and the broader buy-side. Always open to a conversation. Please reach out at [email protected].

Experience

  • Big Kitchen Hospitality ()
    • Head of Marketing
      May 2026 - Present · 3 mos

      - Promoted to lead all marketing for a seven-restaurant hospitality group, owning brand voice across short- and long-form content, paid social, and the customer newsletter program - Build content calendar and creative briefs to drive guest acquisition and retention; partner with ownership on positioning for new restaurant openings

    • BOH Operations Consultant
      Sep 2023 - May 2026 · 2 yrs 9 mos

      - Analyzed historical financial data across seven restaurants to identify margin levers, surfacing recommendations adopted by senior management to improve EBITDA - Implemented new purchasing procedures, reducing COGS by 1.5% beginning Q4 2023; restructured BOH training curriculum and authored briefs identifying operations to optimize or replace

  • Founder and CEO at George Grant Photography
    Jun 2023 - May 2026 · 3 yrs

    - Ideated, scoped, and launched a published media company that covers ACC and FCS sports - Create/maintain the website and social media for the GGP brand to capture online presence - Perform thorough due diligence on current trends in the creative space to better serve brand clients across sports, clubs, and individual projects

  • Investments Portfolio Appraiser at Larson International Group
    Aug 2025 - Sep 2025 · 2 mos

    - Perform in-depth financial analysis of student-managed investment portfolios, evaluating strategic decisions across multiple asset classes - Collaborate with senior judges and peer appraisers to deliver high-quality evaluations of investment presentations in a simulated capital markets environment - Synthesize complex financial data into actionable insights and written feedback, emphasizing market reasoning, asset allocation, and risk management

  • Alternative Investments Shadow at Heritage Wealth Advisors
    Jul 2024 - Aug 2024 · 2 mos

    - Researched and analyzed different private investment opportunities across private credit, real estate, real assets, private and growth equity, and venture capital to provide strategic insight for the firm’s private investment funds - Built strategic relationships with fund managers across the United States to help expand the manager network for the firm for current and future investment opportunities - Analyzed the composition of the private investment fund diversified by the partner and vintage year to gather insight into specific co-investment opportunities