John Griswold grew up in Greenwich, Conn. He attended Greenwich Country Day School and Pomfret School, graduating in 1963. He earned a B.A. in English Literature at Yale University in 1967 and played varsity soccer, intramural hockey and was fullback on the Yale Rugby Club’s first fifteen. Following graduation from Yale he taught English and Reading at Middlesex Junior High School in Darien and coached the soccer team. In 1971 he joined an advertising agency in Greenwich, and later moved to New York where he worked on the American Express account at Ogilvy and Mather. In 1985 he changed careers, joining a small financial advisory partnership in Stamford organizing and marketing a hedge fund of funds. In 1992 he joined Commonfund as head of Client Services, Research and Publications. He founded Commonfund Institute in 1999, serving as its Executive Director developing investor research studies and running nonprofit institutional investor education at the Endowment Institute at the Yale School of Management. John retired from Commonfund in 2016 but continues to consult with higher ed and foundation boards and investment committees.
John lives with his wife Chichi in Stamford and belongs to the Yale Club of New York and the Black Hall Club in Old Lyme, where he has a second home. He enjoys travel, boating, golf, bicycling and paddleboarding.
