President - Real Estate & Development
R. Brooks Sherman, Jr. (no relation to Mr. John Sherman) is in his seventh year with the Royals and first as President - Real Estate & Development, after serving three years as President of Business Operations and before that as Sr. Vice President/Chief Operating Officer. In his current role, Sherman oversees the planning, financing, design, and vision for the Royals new downtown ballpark in the heart of Kansas City. He also serves in a financial advisory role with Royal Blue Equity, LLC, the entity comprised of the Kansas City-based investment group formed to purchase the Kansas City Royals. He served in a similar capacity from 2016-19 as part of John Sherman’s minority ownership in the Cleveland Guardians.
From December 2000 to June 2013, Brooks served as Chief Financial Officer, and ultimately President, of Inergy, L.P. and its affiliates, including two additional publicly traded Master Limited Partnerships. Prior to its merger with Crestwood Midstream Partners, L.P. in 2013, Inergy had achieved total enterprise value of nearly $5 billion through its ownership and management of growth oriented natural gas storage and transportation infrastructure and retail propane distribution businesses. He began his career as a CPA in public accounting with KPMG and Ernst & Young before spending 17 years in executive accounting and finance roles with publicly-traded finance and energy companies.
Brooks earned his Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Missouri State University in 1988. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation-Kansas City Chapter and is also a member of the Board of Directors of The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.
Brooks and his wife, Carol, have three sons: Nick, Alex and Hank.