UWI graduates are everywhere – politics, business, the arts, and as public intellectuals. In the coming months, UWI TODAY will profile some of our high achieving alumni who have made or are making a positive impact on society.
"I really do hope that life begins at 40!" He said with a throaty, throw-back-the-head laugh that was infused with heavy undertones of seriousness. The comment came from his recollection of a period between 2022 and 2023 when he was hospitalised - in Europe - far from family in his hometown of Arima, and facing stage four lymphoma.
To understand Kristofer Granger's story is to encounter a living example of un-dispirited overcoming. His life so far, is a practice in “mastery of strategy”, the virtual banner that appears behind his headshot on Zoom.
Our conversation started the day before on Zoom, when I asked him for a coaching demonstration. His personal brand and projections into the future include teaching, training and business coaching—areas he has been building out from a life that was constructed in Trinidad. These days Granger, 38, resides in Sweden and is the digital marketing manager for the Volvo Group, a multinational that does business across the world from their base in Gothenburg.
“My role is diverse and layered,” he says. “I spend a lot of my time working on marketing strategies and research projects to strengthen our position among corporate audiences (investors, talents, and geopolitical stakeholders).”
At Volvo, Kris says, he works alongside “fantastic colleagues who govern different parts of our digital experience”, leads a movement within the company for excellence in digital marketing, and hosts a global internal studio broadcast on what’s trending in digital marketing at the Volvo Group.
“The experience has been truly fantastic! There has not been a single day where I woke up feeling like I didn’t want to be there,” he says.
It’s a dream job for anyone in the digital marketing space. And, like most dreams, it took enormous effort to achieve. Kris first applied to the company in 2015—and kept on applying. Several applications later, he made it to the interview stage, and even the top two applicants. But still, he was rejected.
“But I persisted,” he recalls. “’Fail forward’, that was my mantra.”
And then, in 2022, Volvo offered him a role that fit. It was the culmination of career choices that fitted together to produce a man whose skillset involved the practice of what he calls “structuring marketing data”.
“I fell deeply in love with marketing in the halls of The UWI’s Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business (ALJGSB) in 2009 and I hungered to practise across industries,” he recounts.
He made his way through the advertising agency circuit in Port-of-Spain. Starting first at Pepper, working under “the legendary Dennis Ramdeen”, then Ross, working side by side with “the genius, Ernie Ross”, and eventually Lonsdale Saatchi and Saatchi as Head of their digital division, under “the wise mentorship of Ken Attale”.
This experience, combined with Granger’s own internal drive and willingness to do what it takes to succeed, proved very effective.
He moved to Sweden in 2020, with few connections to the industry.
“I was broke. So I volunteered in hopes of building my network and earning my place,” he says.
It was through volunteering with TEDxGothenburg and an EU body called EIT Manufacturing that he made links with Volvo. “A year in, and I had built the network, the experience, and the credibility to get me through the door.”
However, he had fresh concerns: a lymphoma diagnosis at age 34.
Recently married and expecting a baby girl not long afterwards, he took on projects between Trinidad and Gothenburg in an effort to increase material preparedness. Because of the workload, stress-related health issues followed.
The symptoms were the beginning of the lymphoma diagnosis. A biopsy confirmed that the cancer was widespread—throughout major organs in his body—and that chemotherapy was needed. At the time though, that was not possible. In the year prior, to keep working through the body pain, he was on a medication that did enough damage to his liver that when the diagnosis came, the dose of chemo had to be an amount that normally qualifies as ineffective. This meant that there was a low probability of the course of treatment being sufficient to break down the tumors.
Subsequently, his mother flew from Trinidad to Sweden to be by his side, literally, as the hospital made space for her to stay with him. And as his strength increased, so did the chemo, until eventually, after eight weeks, doctors released him as an out-patient.
His daughter, Kiarah, had already been born when the diagnosis came—a bright light in an otherwise dark season. Juggling new fatherhood and a critical health battle tested every part of his being. And while both parents did their best under extraordinary pressure, the marriage didn’t survive the strain.
For Granger, the job of father to Kiarah, now a busybody at two and a half years old, is the underpinning of his existence. And with the reality of how close he came to the end of his time on earth, there is now an urgency to build a legacy as a teacher. Another take-away from the experience is a new appreciation for what is and isn't within his power to direct.
He recognises the importance of living with more courage and intent. Granger confesses that "up until a few weeks ago when I was declared cancer-free by the doctors, I did not feel safe in my own body”.
One of the ways he does this is accepting that to have a place in his daughter's life, he cannot simply act on the impulse to move back home to Arima. Home has a new definition: where Kiarah is.
Another way is through teaching—drawing on his professional experience to enrich over eight years of lecturing at UWI ALJGSB, and contributing industry insight as a member of the industry advisory panel at Gothenburg University.
"I always thought the value of The UWI/Lok Jack was in the networking,” he says, “and it certainly is, but what I've come to realise now that I no longer live in the Caribbean is that the real value is in the quality of education that continues to serve me. The foundation it gave my career is invaluable and I would do it the same way if I had to do it again."
