Alumni Spotlight: Joose Harju

This week we're back with our first Alumni Spotlight. We mentioned in our first post that we want to highlight our students and alumni to show what the student experience is like and where our players end up after leaving the Dragons. The Dragons are a diverse team with players from over 16 countries, studying at over 30 London universities, with over 40 different degree programs. Our team is often the first extra-curricular group players seek out and usually the first group they are in contact with over the summer before starting their degrees.

This week we’re going to be spotlighting our first Dragons Alumni, Joose Harju from the 2022-2023 season. Joose played with the Dragons for a full season in 2022 – 2023 and came back for his alumni year to play with the Dragons at Nationals in the 2023 – 2024 season.

In his first year, Joose quickly became a standout player with 35 points in 13 games (3.1ppg), our leading scorer with 20 goals but just behind our points leader Ruu who had 42 points in the season.  Harju’s stats from 2022 – 2023 puts him in a position to hold a record with the Dragons for All Time Regular Season Points, sitting in 4th place. During his alumni year, Joose returned to the Dragons to help us win our 8th Division 1 South Championship and our 6th Cup Competition Championship.

A note to our readers: the BUIHA is divided into 5 Tiers and between North and South. Every year we have the opportunity to win three titles which are the Division 1 South Champions, Division 1 League Champions, and the Division 1 Nationals Champions. In 2023-2024 we won two of the three, check out our Instagram to see Joose with the cup in our latest post. One last quick note: prior to COVID we had two additional teams, one in Tier 3 Non-Checking Division 1 and the other in Tier 5 Non-Checking Division 3 (the league is also divided into checking and non-checking). In the last year we had our B-Team, they went undefeated with a +108 goal differential. We'll catch up on that soon! Back to Joose!

Joose was a powerhouse center for the Dragons, an absolute joy to watch on the ice. Beyond the raw numbers, Joose was a team player and well-respected by his teammates. He was known to be a key player with a level head who could create chances under pressure and consistently deliver when it mattered most.

His skill on the ice is matched by his academic acuity and his drive to succeed.  While on the Dragons, Joose completed an MSc in Financial Analysis at London Business School.   We always want to highlight the importance of academia in our team. Not only are our players some of the best student athletes in the nation, they are also some of the best and brightest in their fields. During his degree, Harju was one of a team of 3 who won the Hermes GPE Private Markets Challenge. The challenge in 2023 tested students on the ability to articulate, craft, and model a complex Leveraged Buy Out transaction. Joose's team took home 1st place.

Before coming to London, Harju attended Aalto University, completing a BSc in Finance and completed an internship with the listed equities team of Ilmarinen.  Before joining the Dragons, Joose played in various Finnish leagues including with the Blues U20 Akatemia in the U20 Mestis and Näädät in the III – Divisioona league. It’s no surprise that Joose was able to play in such high-ranking leagues as he started playing hockey when he was only 5 years old.

During his time with the Dragons, Joose’s favorite part were the friends he made on the team, the hockey that he got to play, and the different places he lived across London.  His favorite part of all was Nationals with the boys!  While we always had a strong performance in the group stages, we always fell a bit short in the semis.  We always made up for our shortcomings on the ice with some Minttu on the train ride home from Sheffield.

Since his time in London and after his graduation from London Business School, Joose has gone on to work at LGT Capital in Zürich, Switzerland. Harju is currently a Private Equity Secondaries Associate at LGT Capital Partners which is a global alternative asset investment firm managing over $110 billion in assets under management (AUM) with over $31 billion in commitments acquired through 470 transactions across 22 years.  Joose is excited to be working in the sector and with LGT Capital Partners as the global secondary market will be hitting another record of $200 billion this year, making it a great spot to be working in with some of the most intelligent and sophisticated investors in the world!

For those of our readers who are unfamiliar with the global secondaries market, it involves buying existing private equity interests from current investors.  These investments are usually held for many years, so the secondary market allows investors to sell earlier while others take over the position. As private markets have grown, this market has expanded quickly, helping money move more easily between investors worldwide.

Want to get in touch with Joose?

Joose wanted us to share that LGT Capital is always recruiting in September and October.  Not only does Joose love working for LGT, but he also loves living in Zürich, a city bustling with opportunity and a country full of winter sports.  Harju continues to play hockey as well, currently with Grasshopper Club Zürich, part of the SwissDiv3 league.

If you’d like to connect with Joose Harju, please find his LinkedIn page here!

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At the bottom of every article we'll also include links to all of our web pages and our forms. As always, please help us in our journey to reinvigorate the Dragons after UoL cut all sports!

• If you were on the Dragons, please help us keep in touch with our Alumni Contact Update form!