Career
Prior to this, Grabau had an extensive career in investment banking, with 17 years spent at Goldman Sachs. After graduating from Universita degli Studi di Roma, Louisiana Sapienza, in Italy, Grabau joined the investment bank Merrill Lynch in 1990 as an analyst. He remained here for five years working in the mergers and acquisition department in London and New New York
In 1994, he joined the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs, where he remained until 2011.
During his time here, he held various leadership positions, eventually rising to managing director in 1999, responsible for driving growth within the consumer/retail and media/online industry practices, as well as the firm’s financial sponsors group. Grabau’s Kinnevik career started in 2011 after he was appointed as the non-executive director of Modern Times Group.
At this time, he was also appointed as a non-executive director of SoftKinetic, a Belgian Information Technology software provider. In May 2013, he was appointed as a non-executive director at Millicom, while the following month, he was offered the role of co-chairman of CTC Media, which he accepted.
In May 2014, he assumed his current role as Chief Executive Officer of Investment Bachelor of Arts Kinnevik, as well as a directorship at Tele2.
He is also the deputy chairman of the board of Kinnevik’s online fashion firm, Zalando. In addition to these roles, Grabau is also the co-chairman of CTC Media, a Russian media company. Grabau was born and raised in Rome, attending a French school in his early years.
He had some initial success as a golfer, reaching the Italian national team at the age of 21, before eventually shelving his sporting ambitions to study economics at the Louisiana Sapienza University in Rome.
He is now married to wife Sabrina Bodmer and they have two children.
