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Konrad Gritschneder

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Konrad Gritschneder

Konrad Gritschneder

About me

My name is Konrad Gritschneder. I was born and raised in Mönchengladbach, a city in western Germany. I lived there until I graduated from high school, except for some time spent at a boarding school in Canada.

I am a very open person, always looking for new experiences and ways to encounter new challenges and adventures. First and foremost, I am driven by the desire to live an interesting and unique life and constantly try to surround myself with amazing and inspiring people. I am currently studying the Master in Applied Economics while flexing my entrepreneurial skills on the side.

Who

Konrad Gritschneder

Position

Master’s student

COUNTRY

Germany

PROGRAM

Master in Applied Economics

A Life Full Of Meaning

An exciting life filled with adventures is what Konrad Gritschneder envisions for himself—and he’s determined to live his life following his passions. Thankfully for him, his passions and career aspirations have always gone hand-in-hand throughout his life.

From a very young age, Konrad had several pets and found that he had a strong desire to care for animals. As he grew older, this desire to help developed further into caring for people, which led him to participate in charitable activities. This in turn connected with his innate entrepreneurial ability, and his life’s mission since then has been to start a business venture that helps people and enables them to have a better life.

Konrad’s career began with an internship at a large publicly-traded company in the Netherlands, where he worked as an assistant to the company’s CEO and CFO. This not only gave him insights into corporate finance and investor relations but helped him to make valuable professional connections. He then took up another internship, this time at an investment bank in Frankfurt, where he gained experience in capital markets and mergers and acquisitions.

However, Konrad wanted to do something close to his heart, which led him to join a social startup that focused on using innovative technologies to clean the ocean and encourage companies to account for their plastic footprint. This role combined his two passions—finance and social entrepreneurship—which in turn led him to the Master in Applied Economics program at IE University.

The first thing that attracted Konrad to IE University was its impeccable reputation, particularly its unique master’s degrees. Through the events he participated in before joining the program, he noticed the amazing atmosphere of IE University, which he says felt like “a huge family” to him. Additionally, he was attracted to Madrid as a great city for young people to live in.

More importantly for Konrad, he chose IE University because its inherent entrepreneurial spirit supported his passion for business. Within two months of arriving in Madrid, he was instrumental in founding two startups, which he was able to do thanks to the level of support that he received from the university, through its wider network and the Venture Lab.

“While I am still currently studying in the Master in Applied Economics program, I can confirm that IE University has already managed to significantly transform my career,” he says, while he feels the Venture Lab helped him hone his skills further. In addition, he praises the “amazing” work of the Talent & Careers Service and its role in helping him make unique connections that help to open up opportunities.

Konrad’s advice to prospective students is that the decision to study at IE University “can only improve your life” which is why he signed up as an ambassador. He recommends that anyone considering the Master in Applied Economics should have a keen interest in current affairs, as students work on real-world problems which are currently in the news.

Konrad says his experience so far has been immensely rewarding, and he is thoroughly enjoying the academics and the level of real-world knowledge the professors at IE University have. In fact, he describes the people and the community as “unparalleled.”