Yann GONTARD, age 54
Professional experience
After starting out at Beg-Cefic, Simon Property group (www.beg-ing.com), a leading shopping centers developer, Yann joined Société de Banque Suisse, which has ever since merged with UBS (www.ubs.com), to develop financial packages for real estate investors. Afterwards, Yann moved on to become an auditor and financial consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers (www.pwc.fr), where he supervised real estate assignments on behalf of institutional investors. After the PwC journey, Yann joined the Real Estate Department of the Victoire group, which became Aviva (www.avivainvestors.fr/re/), an insurance leader in Europe. At Atemi, owned by Marceau Investments and then by a Lehman Brothers fund, Yann had a prominent role of General Secretary and later Deputy General Manager in charge of Asset Management and negotiations with French and foreign partners. He was also in charge of institutional investors for real estate transactions (asset management, development, estate agent). Finally, Yann became General Manager of the REIT Foncière Masséna, specialized in retail building acquisitions and management.
Groupe Gontard was founded in 2006 comprising several specialized structures:
- Oryx Real Estate Investment Management, a company that provides financial and real estate services,
- Koudou Opportunistic Investment Fund, a company dedicated to acquiring majority or minority stakes in short-term transactions (mainly estate agents and property development),
- Springbok Commercial Investment Fund, a company that makes medium- and long-term investments in real estate transactions,
- Impala RealEstate, real estate development company.
Training
– Executive MBA CPA, HEC Paris
– Master’s degree in Financial Engineering, Lyon Management School
– International Business School, ESSEC Paris
– Reserve Officer School for the Army’s Headquarters (ESORSEM) Paris
Yann GONTARD has always worked in the real estate field assuming key financial and operational positions.