Emma Grede, British-born college dropout behind Kardashians’ billion-dollar businesses

Emma Grede, 40, has earned a reputation for herself as the “behind-the-scenes’ protagonist” on Instagram and the brain behind many successful businesses. The British-born college dropout turned CEO has been behind the entrepreneurial success of the Kardashians.

Grede, who is also a brand whisperer, has helped the celebrity family to launch multiple businesses, including Khloe’s fashion brand and Kim’s shapewear company. Over the past six years, she has become the right-hand woman to Khloe, Kim, and Kris and has guided them to entrepreneurial success.

She first helped to found Khloe’s jeans company Good American as its CEO. She went on to assist Kim’s shapewear line SKIMS as a founding partner and then became the chief product officer of Kris’ new cleaning product company Safely in 2021.

Grede first got in touch with the Kardashians after she launched her own London-based talent management and marketing agency called ITB Worldwide which was later acquired by Rogers & Cowen.

ITB Worldwide helped her to link up with the Kardashians. She first worked on Kendall Jenner’s #MyCalvins ad campaign and met Kris Jenner during a Paris Fashion Week event. As their partnership grew, Grede pitched the idea of Good American to Kris who later thought it would be a perfect fit for Khloé. “She thought Khloé might like my idea, and so I went to LA to meet her the following week,” she told standard.co.uk.

Khloé’s decision to buy into the idea birthed the brand Good American which was launched in October 2018 and brought in $1 million in sales on its first day.

Grede launched SKIMS with Kim. Today, the company is valued at $1.6 billion by the New York Times. She also teamed up with Kris and Chrissy Teigen to create a vegan home care line called Safely, which recently made its way to Walmart.

Grede was born in London, England but her parents are immigrants from Jamaica and Trinidad. She was raised only by her mother after a divorce. As a teen, Grede worked to supplement the family’s income. According to her, she actively saved her money to buy magazines like Vogue, Elle, and Marie Claire, because she wanted to work in the fashion industry.

“I was drawn to that world and those people, [but] it was more a means of escapism. That glamour was very far from how I was being raised,” ‘ she told Bustle.

Grede left school midway to pursue her career. She went to study business at the London College of Fashion but dropped out in 2001 after she landed an internship with Gucci. According to her, the decision she took was good for her as she learned a lot more on the ‘street’ than she could get from college.

She is married to Jens Grede, 44, and together, they share four children – Grey, Lola, and twins Lake and Rafferty. They first met while they both worked on ITB.