Financial Phenoms: Brandon & Jessica Bozon balance careers and family
By Mandy Shelton | Photography by Justin Borja and Kati Maxwell
During a recent speech, Belton Mayor Marion Grayson took a parting shot at her former finance director and one of the town’s favorite sons:
“When Brandon Bozon started his job in 2014, he was a wet-behind-the-ears young whippersnapper,” Grayson teased at a city council meeting. “But within a few short months, everyone realized how talented and knowledgeable he is in finance and many other areas.”
Thus, the mayor proclaimed June 28, 2019, as Brandon Bozon Day, which coincided with Brandon’s last day of work after five years as the City of Belton’s director of finance. On July 1, the following Monday, Brandon stepped into his new role—vice president of administrative services and chief financial officer at Temple College, with well wishes from his former employer. “The city is very proud to have worked with such a fine young man. Temple College is blessed to have him on this next step of his professional journey,” Mayor Grayson declared.
“TC has been an important institution in the area,” Brandon responded in his own speech. “I’m ready to take on a new challenge and work for an institution I believe in.”
Belton born and bred, Brandon earned a semester’s worth of college credit before he graduated from high school by taking advantage of the dual credit program offered through Temple College. He graduated from Belton High School and left for College Station in 2005.
Brandon met his wife, Jessica, at Texas A&M, where both earned bachelor’s degrees in accounting and master’s degrees in finance by 2010. “It’s a five-year program, called the Professional Program in Accounting,” says Jessica, a graduate of Brenham High School. The Mays Business School offers a program of coursework that allows highly motivated undergrads, like the Bozons, to attend graduate classes simultaneously. “In five years, you have a master’s degree, whereas normally it takes six,” Jessica explains.
Though they earned matching “his and hers” degrees at A&M, Brandon and Jessica didn’t begin dating until after graduation. It seems the planets aligned for them, Jessica explains. “We were both moving to Dallas to work at the same place.” They were snapped up in 2010 by KPMG, one of the “Big Four” accounting organizations.
“I didn’t want to stay in the ‘big city’ forever,” says Jessica about their stint in Dallas. When Brandon was appointed Belton’s director of finance in 2014, Jessica made the decision to move to Belton with him. “That was a gamble,” Jessica comments about the move to her husband’s hometown. The couple married that November.
“I think she’s fit in well,” Brandon says proudly. “I have it easy. I have this inherited network, for lack of a better term, that I’ve been gifted by my parents and grandparents. Jessica’s had to build her own.” An integral part of Brandon’s network is his mother, Barbara Bozon, who is also in the numbers business—she is a certified public accountant and serves as executive director of the Central Texas Housing Consortium. His father, Carl, has been in banking for over four decades and is currently the senior operations officer and cashier at South Star Bank.
That burgeoning network led Jessica to Brockway, Gersbach, Franklin & Niemeier (BGFN), an accounting firm in Temple. The firm’s president, Steve Niemeier, has a unique perspective on the Bozons’ network, as he also serves on the board of directors at Temple College, Brandon’s new digs.
“We’re committed to building a team of young professionals, like Jessica,” Niemeier remarks. “This has been our No. 1 strategic goal for the last decade.” While actively recruiting through local KPMG connections, BGFN heard about Jessica’s recent transfer within the company. Learning that Jessica was living in Belton but working in Austin, BGFN got in touch and lured Jessica closer to home, where she began work as a senior associate in 2015.
The Bozons live in Belton with their daughter, Ellie Fay Bozon, and two dogs—Zoe, a long-haired dachshund, and lab mix Jack. The family is preparing for two big birthdays in September. “Ellie’s turning 2 on Sept. 30,” Jessica explains. One of Ellie’s birthday presents is due to arrive a little early: a baby brother named Benjamin. “We’re calling him Ben,” Jessica says. “He’s due Sept. 25, so he and Ellie will be very close in birthdays.”
The realization that Ellie will share her birthday week celebrations every year for the foreseeable future has not quite clicked for the toddler. “She doesn’t know that her life is about to change,” Jessica says, giving her daughter a hug.
The Bozons enjoy meeting for dinner once a month with a group of friends. Though Brandon swears it wasn’t intentional, the Bozons’ supper club is 80 percent Aggie—at least among the adult constituents. “We have five couples total,” Jessica explains, characteristically running the numbers. “Between us, we have seven kids who are 5 years old and under. So when we all get together, it’s pretty crazy.”
That craziness is all part of the network Jessica and Brandon have built together in Belton. “It feels more like home, like a place to raise your family. I’m looking forward to raising our kids with our friends,” Jessica says.
Carl’s Garage Brew Club
“Carl’s Garage is our brew club,” Brandon explains about the home-brewing operation taking place in the home-adjacent domain of Brandon’s father, Carl. The club logo, designed by 1st Place Awards and Gifts in Belton, adorns both the chilled mugs kept in the garage freezer and the embroidered “uniforms” worn by members.
The group takes their brew-making activities seriously. Their white IPA is affectionately known as “Day Crusher” within the confines of Carl’s Garage. The crew took things to a new level recently when they collaborated with Bold Republic Brewing Company to release Carl’s Garage White IPA.
“White IPA is for people who don’t like IPAs,” Bold Republic owner Patrick Hodges explains with a smile in a social-media video made for the beer’s release, praising the recipe crafted in Carl’s Garage.
Brandon and his dad, along with friends Matt Bates, Jeremy Allamon, Chris Brown and Ted Smith, brew a range of award-winning beers in the eponymous garage, from schwarzbier to lager.
“In 2017, we received gold certificates for our White IPA in the National Homebrew Competition,” Brandon says. “In 2019, we received gold certificates for our schwarzbier and light lager. The certificates mean we scored in a certain range, but not high enough to win a medal. We’ve also received a few silver and a couple bronze certificates over the last three years. We’re really proud of them. We jokingly refer to the White IPA as ‘certified’ white (gold) IPA, since that was our first gold certificate winner.”
The group has wisely avoided any temptation to use the “No Girls Allowed” sign that often accompanies garage gatherings of boys’ clubs.
“I love beer!” laughs Jessica, daughter-in-law to Carl. “Their White IPA is my favorite. I can’t wait to have some once this baby is born!”
