Brandon is a senior leader at Samsung Next, a software & service innovation group in Silicon Valley, where he manages the strategy behind venture investments, corporate development, and partnerships. As an Investor for Samsung NEXT Ventures, Brandon provides early-stage capital, expertise, and access to Samsung’s distribution to startups. He also co-founded and leads the Diverse Founders Initiative, which is focused on finding, investing, and elevating diverse founders (Black, Latinx, and Women).
Brandon also serves as a global Research leader in the Office of the Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) for Samsung Electronics, headquartered in South Korea. He ultimately drives thought leadership agenda on behalf of the CIO and delivers insights on disruptive trends relating to consumers, industries & technologies.
Before Samsung, he spent a few years at Morgan Stanley in Research, covering Internet (e-commerce, social media, gaming), where he notably co-founded the Amazon Disruption Symposium global series and led various high-profile IPOs and initiations.
Brandon Hoffman has spent over 10 years in finance, mostly covering Consumer, Tech, and Media. However, he started out as a teller behind bulletproof glass at a branch on “Main Street” to pay for college before making it to Wall Street. Additional experience includes being a music entrepreneur, as he built and operated a production and recording studio.
Brandon has dual-degree from Wharton and Harvard Kennedy School, earning a MBA in Finance and a MPA in policy & behavioral science. Brandon graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Business and Music from CSU Fullerton at age 20, after transferring from Cypress Community College.
Brandon is personally committed to addressing the racial wealth gap in the US through business and technology as ways to build financial empowerment and equity. This committed work has been done through Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), Echoing Green, Toigo Foundation, and the Sheila C. Johnson Fellowship at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard.
For fun, he enjoys time with his family, RPG video games, R&B music, BBQ, and Batman