Kristel Kivinurm-Priisalm

Founder, Managing Partner & CEO

Experience in Emerging Europe investments since 1997

Kristel is one of the founders of Avaron and acts as the firm’s CEO and Head of Investor Relations.

Kristel holds M.A. degree in international business (summa cum laude) from Concordia International University (now Tallinn University of Technology). She has also studied at St. Petersburg University of Economics and Finance on an exchange programme.

Kristel’s experience with equity markets started in 1997 when she joined a regional investment bank Trigon Capital. She started as an Analyst in the corporate finance team (1997-1998), then worked as a Director in the Capital Markets division (1999-2001) and finally built up and headed the firm’s asset management division (2002-2007). In 2007 she co-founded Avaron.

Aside from her daily work Kristel has been active in sharing her knowledge to build finance and business community in Estonia. Currently she serves as a Voting Member of Nasdaq Tallinn Listing and Surveillance Committee (since 2021) and a Member of the Supervisory Board of Estonia’s Service Industry Association, an NGO she founded together with other active Estonian business people in 2010. She has served as a Voting Member of Nasdaq Tallinn Listing and Surveillance Committee during 2000-2005, as Chairman of the Association of Estonia’s Fund Management Companies (2007-2011) and as a Member of the Supervisory Board of Estonia’s State Bank Deposit Guarantee Fund (2004-2013). She is fluent in English, Russian, Finnish and Estonian, and has a reading knowledge of German. Her hobbies are table tennis and reading.