Born in Albany, New York, the son of industrialist Anthony N. Brady, he graduated from Yale University in 1899. He was raised an Episcopalian but converted to Catholicism. Nicholas Brady and his brother James Cox Brady oversaw a vast business empire built by their father. James Brady died in 1927 and Nicholas continued running the businesses. He was Chairman of the Board of Directors of New York Edison Co. and a director of Anaconda Copper Mining Co., Westinghouse Electric, National City Bank, Union Carbide, plus numerous other companies in the United States and Japan whose activities were primarily in utilities. The Brady brothers provided substantial funds to enable Walter Chrysler to take over the ailing Maxwell Motor Company and to acquire Chrysler Corporation. Nicholas Brady would be