I J B I R O J S

LV

LV

Ieva
Jansone-Buka

Partner

Coming back to the financial advisory business after spending 4 years as a Board Member of the National promotional institution of Latvia “ALTUM”, with a total AUM of 1.2bln EUR. My main responsibilities were investments in Baltic venture capital and private equity funds, as well as an overall management of the credit process. This experience has given me in-depth knowledge of the current venture capital and private equity markets in the Baltics, which is of great use when structuring deals for our customers. From April, 2025 I have been elected as a board member at Latvia Venture Capital and Private Equity association, which gives me a great insight of venture capital and private equity market in Baltics and its main players. My work experience at ALTUM also allows me to easily navigate through the jungles and various complexities of acquiring state funds allocated to entrepreneurship and conduct a constructive dialogue with various state agencies. I also have more than 10 years of experience in banking at Citadele Bank and Nordea Bank’s Latvian branch under my belt, having held various positions which involved working with corporate clients. That has enabled me to build a large contact base in the banking sector as well as in different industries in Latvia and Baltics. I also excel at management skills and real hands on business, thanks to five years as a CEO of two of the largest waste management companies in Latvia – Clean R and Vides Pakalpojumu Grupa (currently Pilsetvides Serviss). Currently, I also serve as a supervisory council member at the Latvian telecommunications company TET.

Jānis
Buks

Partner

I’ve been an expert in the finance industry for more than 35 years. After graduating from the University of Latvia (Faculty of Law), I started my career as a lawyer for the Investment Bank of Latvia. After three years working as a banking lawyer, I switched to the leasing business which was an unexplored industry in Latvia at the time, so I can proudly say that I’m the “father of the Latvian leasing industry”. I spent a long time as CEO of the Latvia and Baltic leasing business for Merita Nordbanken group, SEB group, Hypo Vereinsbank group as well as UniCredit group. During my time in UniCredit group, I was directly involved in the establishment of the Baltic business network as well as working full time as the CEO of UniCredit Leasing Russia (as well as Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of UniCredit Leasing Ukraine). After my career in the leasing business in Russia, I came back to Latvia towards the end of 2010, and I was invited to become the Head of Corporate business at Nordea Bank Latvia. In those days, Nordea was a purely corporate bank, and the bank’s corporate portfolio amounted to approx. 2,2 billion Euros. The bank had approx. 1500 corporate customers and the largest part of them remains great personal acquaintances. In 2012, I was appointed as Head of Nordea Bank in Latvia, as well as a member of the Management Board of Nordea Bank Baltic. In October 2017, a merger took place, by which Nordea and DnB Bank were merged in the Baltic market. A new bank, Luminor, was established and I was invited to head the Luminor corporate business team in Latvia (corporate loan portfolio approx. 2,8 billion Euros), as well as to become a Management Board member for Luminor Latvia. During my career at Nordea Bank, as well as Luminor Latvia, I have been a part of some very professional teams, making the most complicated corporate business deals possible, such as M&A deals, complicated corporate syndicates, Baltic and international corporate lending deals, etc. This experience, as well as the valuable contacts, are now a core part of the IJ birojs business model. Towards the end of 2018, due to private reasons, I decided to leave my position in Luminor, becoming a Supervisory Board member of one of the leading Baltic pharma companies, Olainfarm, in the April of 2019. The company was then listed on the Riga Nasdaq stock exchange, so I have direct experience in management of a listed company under my belt, as well as a detailed understanding of the real risks and benefits of being listed on the stock exchange. Since then, Olainfarm has left the stock exchange, as well as changed all of their most important shareholders; the company has gone through a rebranding process gaining a new name in the process, Olpha. The company has also redirected its export focus from Russia and Eastern Europe towards western markets.