President
Anne Marie Pecha is an independent private equity searcher and operator. She has built her set of skills in a wide variety of positions, large and small, in a wide variety of enterprises. She seeks out challenging work, and founded Brackenwell in pursuit of her passion for ingenuity, for learning new paradigms and skills, and for serving a small community.
Previously Anne Marie worked as an editor and writer at Dow Jones Newswires, the National Journal Group, World Book Inc., and the Kearney (Neb.) Hub. Over the course of her journalism career she covered many topics related to business, science, politics, and society.
Anne Marie earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. Inspired by a feminist social and political philosophy class she had taken her senior year of college, she pivoted to earn a master's in social sciences from the University of Chicago, where her thesis adviser was the late, great, beloved evolutionary theorist Leigh Van Valen.
For 18 years Anne Marie has been pursuing education with her four children through an entrepreneurial style of homeschooling. Working without the distinction of any corporate title to command respect means she has had to develop more savvy to draw out the best quality work from contractors, volunteers, and other partners.
She loves the incredible variety of her work and the ever-present challenge of on-the-job learning. She regularly pivots among diverse tasks. She is a planner with big ideas and a long-term view, but goes with the flow when an issue requires swift reaction. Months, weeks, and days are often a mix between proactive and reactive, analytical and creative, factual and sentimental, and human and material concerns. Adaptability is her specialization.
All of Anne Marie’s work requires initiative. If she is seeking a particular social, educational, material, or other opportunity, she has learned that she often must forge the path to it herself. This freedom and responsibility — two sides of the same coin — are what have drawn her to entrepreneurship.
Anne Marie graduated as co-valedictorian from York High School in York, Neb. Her father retired as a district supervisor in the law enforcement division of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Her mother is retired from careers as a school aide, bank teller, and daycare business owner. Beginning in York, Anne Marie has worked in many jobs. Please see LinkedIn for her professional experience.
Anne Marie’s hobbies include following the news in international relations, governance, sustainable agriculture, and other topics, and reading science fiction and historical fiction. She also enjoys fiber crafts, puzzles, baking, walking, and most of all, spending time with her husband of more than twenty years and their children.