G. A. Gripenberg

Georg Achates Gripenberg (18 May 1890, Saint Petersburg – 31 May 1975, Helsinki) was a Finland-Swedish diplomat. He served as an Envoy of Finland to London in 1933–1941 and in Stockholm from 1943 to 1956 and as Finland's first Ambassador to the United Nations from 1956 to 1958.

Biography He was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia Empire, to a noble family. His father, , was a State Councilor and an activist for Finnish independence. His mother, Agnes Maria Fredrika von Haartman, was also from a noble family.

Gripenberg graduated from the in 1907 and earned his Bachelor of Philosophy from the University of Helsinki in 1911. From 1908 to 1909 he also studied at Oxford University and the London School of Economics in England. He eventually took a degree in law from Uppsala University in Sweden, in 1917.

In 1918, he was hired by Finland's newly established Ministry for Foreign Affairs and was appointed his country's first diplomatic representative to Sweden. He resigned the following year. In 1920 he was recruited back to the ministry's office as Permanent Secretary.

He initially served as a Chargé d'Affaires, from 1921 to 1923 in Brussels, The Hague and Luxembourg, from 1923 to 1929 in Madrid and Lisbon and from 1929 to 1933 as Envoy to Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago de Chile.