James J. Kragenbring

I serve as Senior Vice President for Institutional Administration and as Associate Professor of Business and Christian Studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Spurgeon College. I have the privilege of leading the institution’s administrative, financial, and operational functions and of teaching the next generation of business and ministry leaders.

Before joining Midwestern in 2017, I spent twenty years as an institutional investment manager, building portfolios, strategies, products, and teams while stewarding capital for some of the world’s leading endowments, foundations, and pension plans. In 2008 I founded Aquifer Capital, which for nearly a decade served as an investment adviser to charitable endowments and as the sole investment adviser to the Aquifer Funds. I continue to serve as the President and Chief Investment Officer of Aquifer Capital, which since 2018 has focused exclusively on managing affiliated capital and providing pro bono endowment counsel to nonprofit organizations.

These roles differ in form, but they arise from a common vocation. Human beings are created in God’s image and called to bear his image in their work as stewards of creation. This site is where I think publicly about what stewardship requires: of institutions, of capital, and of the people entrusted with both.