Massey moves forward from Avanti

Avanti Finance head of distribution, Stephen Massey, has decided to leave the firm. 

But at the age of 50 he says he wants to “take a break” for a month before looking round for his next challenge. 

He will depart at the end of July. 

Massey insisted there was no reason for his departure except that he had been with the company for 19 years and wanted to move on to a new opportunity for the next 15 years of his career. 

Massey said he was leaving the company in good heart.  

“Avanti's loan portfolio has just crossed the $2 billion dollar mark,” he said.

“When I started it was $45 million.”

Avanti rose to become New Zealand's second largest non-bank lender last December, according to a survey by KPMG.  

At the time, Avanti's chief executive, Mark Mountcastle attributed the company's success to a determined pursuit of what he called the “limited opportunities” outside the main banks. 

Meanwhile, Massey's team is growing.

There are three new appointments to the Avanti property group, Julia Winterbottom, Michael Harrison and Tammy Stitt. 

In addition, the company is looking for a new manager in this area. 

One long-time adviser said there was probably nothing out of the ordinary about Massey's departure. 

“It just shows that people sometimes need a change.” he said.

“Nineteen years is a long time to work for one company.”

Avanti is an unlisted company, half owned by a passive investment firm, G and S Capital, with large numbers of small shareholders.

An spokesperson for Avanti said there was nothing unusual about Massey’s departure.

“He’s a great guy, he’s done a great job for us, we love him a lot. He just wants to re-evaluate what he is doing with his life after 19 years, as a lot of us do.”