About Jerry Behar

Jerry Behar is the co-founder of Grand River Solutions. He is also the founder and CEO of Nissim Capital. He was the founding CEO, managing director, and visionary of Workiva (NYSE: WK), formerly named WebFilings, the leading provider of connected data, reporting, and compliance solutions. Workiva created Wdesk, a cloud-based platform for enterprises to collect, manage, report and analyze business data in real time. Wdesk includes a sophisticated productivity suite for business data collaboration and reporting that is used by thousands of corporations, including more than 75% of the Fortune 500, government agencies, and is increasingly being implemented at universities.

Prior to Workiva, Jerry was the founder and CEO of Financial Intelligence, LLC which ranked number 33 on the 2008 Inc. 500 list of the USA’s fastest growing private companies. He previously served as the chief financial officer of MS2 Inc. and Engineering Animation Inc., where he negotiated eight corporate acquisitions. Jerry also co-founded International Risk Control Inc. and has additional executive experience that includes notable positions at Woodside Hotels and Matrix Pharmaceutical.

Jerry is on the board of directors of Visby Medical, Inc. and served on the board/audit committee of Portal Software prior to their acquisition by Oracle in 2006. He is a Certified Public Accountant and earned his B.A. in business administration from Michigan State University and his M.B.A. from Stanford University.

Jerry was named the 2018 Alumnus of the Year and served as an advisory board member from 2013 – 2017 for the Department of Accounting and Information Systems at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business.

Jerry & His Family

Learn about Jerry and the history of Grand River Solutions

Enjoy the conversation with Jerry Behar, Joe Storch, and Jahanna Azarian, discussing how the Me-Too Movement and a national tragedy motivated Jerry to take the important steps toward mitigating sexual assault and harassment in education. Plus, find out how Grand River Solutions gets its name and hear Jerry’s thoughts about the company and his co-founders.

Be Inspired by Jerry

Spring 2022 Broad Commencement Alumni Speaker: Jerome Behar

Jerome Behar (B.A. Accounting ’79), founder and managing director of Nissim Capital and the co-founder and chair of Grand River Solutions, speaks to the Michigan State, Broad Spartan Class of 2022.

Finding Inspiration and the Creative Spark | Jerry Behar | TEDxLAHS

Jerry has started four companies including Financial Intelligence, Workiva, and most recently, Grand River solutions, which is focused on Title IX and Clery (safety) compliance and reporting for higher education and K-12 schools. Jerry will share his experience in starting these companies and the source of his creative inspiration and spark.

Michigan State Alumnus of the Year

Jerome Behar (BA Business Administration ’89) was recognized as the department’s Alumnus of the Year at our annual Spring Banquet on April 18, 2018. Jerry has founded four companies and is presently the founder and managing director of Nissim Capital. He is a long-time friend of the department and a past member of our External Advisory Board. Jerry is very generous with his time and ideas in expanding our horizons regarding our curriculum, research, and how we engage with alumni. Our faculty have particularly benefitted from his insights about Big Data in the accounting context and from his connections to Silicon Valley. He has a brought a creative spark to our students and faculty through his interactions.

As chief financial officer for a handful of public and early stage companies, Jerry Behar found himself consistently challenged by a lack of skilled, high-level accounting consultancies to help with bet-the-company transactions.