T'84

Peter Grieve

Founder and Managing Partner, Windy River Group; Director, Grassroot Soccer

I’ve always envisioned myself as an entrepreneur.

Soccer has long been a part of the life of Peter Grieve T’84. He played soccer growing up and at the U.S. Naval Academy. After graduating in 1977, he spent five years in the U.S. Marine Corps as an infantry officer and deployed to the Philippines and Hong Kong. Then, he had a decision to make: law school or business school? He was interested in working in politics and a mentor encouraged him to choose business school.

He picked Tuck because of the energy he felt on campus. “The students were engaged, active, and they cared about each other,” Grieve says. “Team culture was pervasive. It was like, ‘This is the bar. Now let’s get as many of us over the bar as we can.’”

At Tuck, he was the captain of the soccer team his first year. That year, he challenged Harvard Business School, via a telegram he sent to the president of the student board, to a match that later became the MBA World Cup, now the longest-running graduate school athletic tournament in the world. The last line of his letter read: No response or no show will be considered a forfeit. HBS showed up in matching white kits. “They crushed us 7 to 1 that first year, but the next year, we went there and beat them 3 to 2,” Grieve remembers. “That started the back and forth rivalry.”

After Tuck, Grieve spent 25 years with Goldman Sachs, where he co-founded and led the firm’s largest private wealth management practice around the world. In 2009, he walked away from being a managing director at Goldman Sachs to help found Cordia Bancorp Inc., a group that intended to acquire failed banks from the FDIC. Their flagship was the Bank of Virginia. “I’ve always envisioned myself as an entrepreneur,” Grieve says.

He became the founder and managing partner of Windy River Group, a private investment firm with interests in banking, industrial technology, and professional soccer. Wait, soccer? That’s right. Grieve never set out to work in sports, but because he’s been an avid soccer player his whole life—he still plays in a men’s league at home in Topsfield, Massachusetts—buying soccer teams became a natural fit.

Grieve serves as a board member of an organization called Grassroot Soccer, which was started by a Dartmouth graduate to teach young people from Africa about HIV prevention through a soccer-based curriculum. At his first board meeting, he met Methembe Ndlovu, a Zimbabwean footballer and co-founder of Grassroot Soccer, who, in 2008, founded the Bantu Rovers Football Club, a pro soccer team in Zimbabwe. Ndlovu was looking for capital, and Grieve offered to help.

So they made a deal and in 2009, Grieve put up the capital to buy the Bantu Rovers. Grieve still has the inaugural jersey from the team framed above his desk. “I learned some valuable management lessons about owning a club,” he says. “It was a great proving ground.”

He’s trying to buy more teams and build a network of clubs where one doesn’t currently exist. “We are building a global franchise in football,” he says. “Soccer is this universal game that anyone can play. It’s such an icebreaker.”

The biggest lesson Grieve learned from his time at Tuck? “That you can create something out of nothing,” he says. “All you need is an idea, a drive, and a passion.”

Continue Reading

Related Stories

A Winning Story: Meet Crunchyroll CFO Travis Page T’10

As the CFO of Crunchyroll, a specialty streaming service that boasts 120 million users, Travis Page T’10 is leveraging his varied experience in the media and entertainment space to bring the Japanese art form to a wider audience.

Read More

Story & Strategy: Meet TikTok CMO Kate Jhaveri T’03

Building strong, vibrant, and supportive communities like the one she joined at Tuck has been a central theme throughout Kate Jhaveri’s decorated career.

Read More

The Financier

Peter Lengyel T’64 always knew he wanted to work in the movie business, but it took him nearly 35 years of working in finance to get there.

Read More

The Documentarian

Despite having no formal training in film, Jim Butterworth T'91 co-founded NakedEdge Films, a production company whose documentaries have earned an Oscar, two duPonts, and four Emmy nominations.

Read More

The Reporter

As a consumer and retail reporter for CNBC, Lauren Hirsch T'12 covers transformative corporate events of the country’s biggest retailers and consumer packaged goods companies.

Read More

The Fixer

When Jeffrey Hirsch T’99 was hired by Starz in 2015, his task was essentially to fix things—and the fix is working.

Read More

The Equalizer

Carey Albertine T'05 is changing media for the better, starting with books made for children and young adults.

Read More

The Creator

By taking extra time to research and develop ideas and lean on fellow writers as a sounding board, Greg Thompson T'92 figured out a way to write on his own.

Read More

The Connector

Christine Amirian T'96 likes to be challenged and try new things, so in 2016, she took another leap and accepted a job at The Walt Disney Company. 

Read More

Nykia Wright

Nykia Wright T'09, an Atlanta native and newcomer to the news business, comes to the job with a background in consulting, the instincts of a problem-solver, and a work ethic honed from childhood.

Read More

Russell Wolff

At the 2018 Super Bowl, Russell Wolff T’94 was sitting between his wife, a fellow Tuck alum, and a VIP client. Wolff, the executive vice president and general manager of ESPN+, takes a lot of clients to sporting events. It’s part of his job description.

Read More

Leslie Andrews

What if learning how to play golf could mean the difference between advancing your business career and not? That’s the thinking that Leslie Andrews T’90 has built her business on.

Read More

Kurt Zwald

Kurt Zwald T’12 is walking through an empty Fenway Park on a Tuesday evening. It’s not always this quiet at his workplace. “When we have 38,000 fans in the ballpark—that energy from the fans is really what invigorates me every day to come to work.” Zwald says.

Read More

Fay Gosiengfiao

Fay Gosiengfiao T’11, VP of finance for the NBA, never set out to work in sports. It was never part of her master plan. 

Read More

Kevin Demoff

Ask Kevin Demoff D'99, T'06 what he loves most about his job, and he’ll tell you that it’s that feeling he gets standing on the sidelines of an NFL game, watching 75,000 fans cheer at once. 

Read More

Catie Griggs

Growing up in North Carolina, Catie Griggs D’03, T’09 was a goalkeeper for her soccer team. She loved the sport but she never imagined that one day, she’d have a career on the business side of professional soccer.

Read More

Marketing a Disruptive Brand

Together, two Tuck alumni, Kate Jhaveri T’03 and Michael Aragon T’01, led marketing and innovation at the growing global brand Twitch.

Read More

Alex Smith

Alex Smith T’99 has always been a major sports fan. So when a fellow alumnus called about a job at ESPN, he jumped at the opportunity.

Read More

Gibson “Gib” Biddle

NerdWallet's Gib Biddle T'91 came to Tuck as a marketer, but then realized he was more of a builder.

Read More

Tom Christie

For Tom Christie T’85, the COO of Showtime, show business has been the proving ground for an unforgettable lesson from Tuck.

Read More

David Chemerow

David Chemerow D'73, T'75 uses big data to watch what you’re watching.

Read More

Roger Lynch

Disruption doesn’t scare Roger Lynch T’95. Since leaving Tuck, he has headed three industry-changing companies and continues to innovate at the intersection of media, technology, and developing new markets.

Read More

Andrea Perez

As general manager, North America soccer for Nike, Andrea Perez T’08 is sharing the transformative power of athletics with anyone who has ever wanted the opportunity to play. Just like she did.

Read More

On Influencing Company Culture

In his six seasons as executive vice president and chief human resources officer for the National Football League, Robert Gulliver T’97 has helped manage the NFL through some major cultural shifts.

Read More

Gene Hornsby

After a successful career in everything from finance to manufacturing, Gene Hornsby T'73 is now the vice president of the Firebirds, a Cape Cod Baseball League team.

Read More

Eduardo Pokorny

Eduardo Pokorny T'01 Pokorny is the newly appointed chief financial officer for the Spanish-speaking businesses of ESPN Latin America.

Read More