Claude Grunitzky - Biography

Biography

Grunitzky grew up in the Togolese capital of Lomé. His greatuncle was Nicolas Grunitzky, former president of Togo. When Grunitzky was eight years old, his family left Togo for the United States, where his father had been appointed ambassador to Washington. Four years later, Grunitzky moved to France to study at the Catholic boarding school College de Juilly and, later, at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris Sciences-Po.
At the age of 20, Grunitzky moved to London after a year at Sciences Po, to pursue studies in economics at London University. It was there that he embarked on his career in journalism, writing for Dazed & Confused, The Big Issue and The Guardian. In 1995, at the age of 24, he launched TRUE magazine, which met with immediate critical success and was renamed TRACE a year later. In 1998, he uprooted to New York and oversaw the magazine as it carved a niche for itself in the world of independent publishing, with its own distinctive brand of transcultural reportage. As the magazine grew in influence, he co-founded TRUE Agency, a specialized advertising agency based in Los Angeles and Nashville. In February 2003, Grunitzky and business partners Richard Wayner and Olivier Laouchez completed a multimillion-dollar financing deal led by Goldman Sachs Group. As a result, the TRACE brand is now being leveraged globally across various television, radio, mobile, event and interactive platforms.

Grunitzky, a frequent contributor to the French weekly “Courrier International,” has worked as an associate producer on the BBC’s “The Works” series. He currently advises global corporations and governments in the fields of digital innovation, diversity and social responsibility. In 2008, Grunitzky co-curated, with the cultural services of the French Embassy in the United States, the “I Kiffe NY” festival, devoted to bringing the best of French urban culture to New York City. Grunitzky is also a board member of Humanity in Action, a non-profit organization which works to build global leadership, defend democracy, protect minorities and improve human rights in Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, and the United States.

As a Sloan Fellow at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Grunitzky earned an MBA. In November 2011, he was appointed a lecturer on "Thought Leadership" during MIT's Sloan Innovation Period. In January 2012, he travelled to Lomé, Togo, and officially announced the launch of his new venture, True Africa, on his blog.