Juha's focus is in the development and active asset management of property portfolios, and he has specialized in innovating solutions for the benefit of property users. He takes special interest in risk management, and in the sourcing and closing of investment opportunities.

Prior to co-founding Avant, he established Mattila & Saxen Property Partners, a Euromoney awarded company, with Avant co-founder Teemu Saxén. Their company reached an AUM of over 300 Meur, working in real estate asset management with leading companies such as Sveafastigheter and McDonald’s.

Before his career as an entrepreneur, he built a Finnish subsidiary for an international retail property development company in five years time. The subsidiary profitably peaked at over 50 Meur turnover.

Juha benefits from a wide experience accruing from tasks varying from cross-border M&A work of listed companies in an attorneys' office, to a leading position in the property development unit of a large construction company. He holds an M. Sc. in Law from the University of Helsinki and an MBA in international finance from the Helsinki School of Economics.

Teemu Saxén is one of the leading professionals in property development and value-add asset management. He has considerable hands-on experience in serving the users of properties from the viewpoint of an asset manager, developer and advisor.

Teemu is highly interested in creating sustainable, cost-efficient solutions for capex, tenant improvements and for the maintenance of property portfolios. He is also active in transaction work, having sourced and divested a number of off-market investments with impressive returns.

Prior to co-founding Avant, Teemu set up Mattila & Saxen Property Partners, a Euromoney awarded company, with Avant co-founder Juha Mattila, their company reached an AUM of over 300 Meur, working in real estate asset management with leading companies such as Sveafastigheter and McDonald’s where he focused on value-add and development work.

Before setting up their own company in 2010 Teemu worked at Sjaelso, a listed Danish property development company where he held a central role in the exponential growth of the Finnish business by identifying, developing and leasing out greenfield development projects. He started his real estate career at Catella in letting advisory where he successfully carried out several headquarters leasings. He holds an M. Sc. in Economics and Business from Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki.

Jussi has a wide experience in asset and investment management, transactions and financing, and has been active in the market since 2001.

Prior to co-founding Avant, Jussi served as a director at Amplion Asset Management (later Catella Asset Management), a Helsinki-based investment and asset management firm part of Catella Group with EUR 350m under management. Prior to joining Amplion in 2013, Jussi was one of the early partners at Nordic Real Estate Partners (NREP), an awarded Nordic private equity real estate company, where he established the Helsinki office in 2006 and was involved in multiple transactions and fund launches across the Nordics. He was serving as a key man at, among others, the highly successful NREP Logistics AB fund with SEK 1.6Bn in equity.

Before the entrepreneurial part of his career, Jussi was serving at Aberdeen Asset Management in Helsinki, where he lastly held a position as head of transactions, being responsible for the transactional activities on behalf of the selected segregated mandates and funds.

Jussi holds an M. Sc. in Economics from the Helsinki School of Economics.

Lorenz´s focus is on new client relationships, investments and finance. He is also leading the firm´s debt origination business.

His background and experience makes him one of the most internationally recognized figures in the Finnish and Nordic real estate markets, having been involved and responsible for projects in all of the Nordics and Germany exceeding a billion EUR both on the debt and the equity side.

Prior to joining Avant he was with Trevian Asset Management, where he was, as a Partner, responsible for all of the firms new Investments and international clients. During his tenor the firm has grown into an internationally recognized company and became one of Finland’s leading Asset Management firms with AUM exceeding 800 MEUR at the time if his departure.

Before joining Trevian, he served as the Investment Director for HGR Property Partners, a premier local real estate investment and development company. Before that he spent close to a decade with two major international senior banks where he was ultimately responsible for management and loan origination for the Nordic region for Hamburg based DGHyp bank building up a performing Nordic loan book exceeding 300 MEUR within 2 years.

He earned a Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Leipzig and is active in the development of the property and investment profession by serving on the board of RICS Finland.