DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Star Mountain Capital, LLC ("Star Mountain"), an investment manager focused exclusively on the large, underserved U.S. lower middle-market, is pleased to announce that Chris Goodwin has expanded his role from Operating Partner to Managing Director and has opened Star Mountain’s Dallas office. With over thirty years of complementary experience as a leveraged finance banker, private equity investor and C-level operating executive, Mr. Goodwin brings a diverse skill set and a vast network to Star Mountain's focus on value-added debt and equity investing in established U.S. small and medium-size businesses.
“We are delighted to have one of our operating partners expand his role and become full-time,” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital Founder & CEO. “A Texas native, Chris has extensive operating and investment experience and relationships from a 30+ year career based in Dallas and will deepen Star Mountain’s network of relationship and investment activities in Texas and the broader region. An experienced operating executive, he will help Star Mountain continue to provide value to portfolio company investments by helping business owners strategize and execute organic and strategic acquisition growth plans to achieve success.”
"My career has been focused on supporting the growth of lower middle-market businesses as both a capital provider and operator," said Chris Goodwin. "Star Mountain's flexible and customizable capital and ability to add operating expertise through its impressive Collaborative Ecosystem® of Senior Advisors and Operating Partners make the firm distinctively positioned to capitalize on this segment of the market. I am excited to expand my role with Star Mountain and look forward to further supporting the growth of private, established and growing small and medium-sized businesses in the Southwest."
Over the course of his career, Mr. Goodwin has originated, underwritten and managed over $6 billion of complex debt and equity investments across a broad spectrum of industries. For 15 years, Mr. Goodwin was successively promoted through a number of roles with BNP Paribas, culminating as Co-Head of the Merchant Banking Group. In addition, Mr. Goodwin served as Director, Financial Services and Corporate Platforms for Hudson Advisors, the captive asset management firm for Lone Star Funds (a global investment firm with approximately $25 billion in assets under management). Recently, Mr. Goodwin combined his private investment acumen and operational skills serving as President, COO and CFO of several established small and medium-sized U.S. private businesses where he completed numerous strategic initiatives including acquisitions. Mr. Goodwin was also Vice President at The Fuji Bank where he was responsible for originating and executing leveraged finance opportunities with private equity investors in the Southwest. He began his banking career with Mbank (now part of JP Morgan Chase).
Mr. Goodwin earned a BBA in Finance from The University of Texas at Austin.
Star Mountain, which recently completed its 100th investment in 2020, was again named Best Places to Work by Pensions & Investments and one of the 2020 Best Places to Work by Crain’s New York Business highlighting the firms focus on culture and community.
ABOUT STAR MOUNTAIN
As of December, with approximately $1.5 billion in assets under management, Star Mountain takes a data-driven approach to investing into the U.S. lower middle-market through two complementary investment strategies: (i) direct investing and (ii) secondaries (acquiring LP interests and direct assets). Star Mountain believes these complementary strategies provide scalable and diversified access for its institutional and high-net-worth investors to established small and medium-sized businesses that generally have at least $15 million in annual revenues.
Since 2010, Star Mountain has made over 90 direct investments in U.S. small and medium-sized businesses and over 20 secondaries / fund investments within its Collaborative Ecosystem ®, exclusively focused on the U.S. lower middle-market. With over 75 team members (including advisors/operating partners) across six offices nationwide, Star Mountain believes its focus and dedication has been productive for job creation and economic development. Star Mountain is dedicated to this large market of underserved businesses purpose-built to address the challenges and opportunities of these companies. As part of its commitment, Star Mountain has trademarked Investing in the Growth Engine of America ®.
As part of its ESG program (Environmental, Social and Governance), Star Mountain’s Charitable Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 focuses on improving lives through economic development, including job creation, health & wellness and cancer research. Notable missions include helping match veterans and women with high quality small and medium-sized business career opportunities across the country, including within Star Mountain’s portfolio.
Note: This does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase interests in any investment product. Awards and recognitions by unaffiliated rating services, companies and/or publications should not be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he / she / it will experience a certain level of results if Star Mountain is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services; nor should they be construed as a current or past endorsement, testimonial endorsement, recommendation or referral of Star Mountain or its representatives by any of its clients or any other third party. Rankings published by magazines and others are generally based exclusively on information prepared and / or submitted by the recognized advisor. Moreover, with regard to all performance information contained herein, directly or indirectly, if any, readers should note that past results are not indicative of future results. The description and the selection methodologies of each award and recognition are subjective and will vary.
Awards and recognitions by unaffiliated rating services, companies, and/or publications should not be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she/it will experience a certain level of results if SMFM is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services; nor should they be construed as a current or past endorsement, testimonial endorsement, recommendation or referral of SMFM or its representatives by any of its clients or any other third party. Rankings published by magazines and others are generally based exclusively on information prepared and/or submitted by the recognized advisor.
Crain’s two-part survey process consisted of evaluating each nominated company’s workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. The second part involved an employee survey to measure the employee experience. The combined scores determined the top companies and the final ranking. Star Mountain must pay a fee to Crain’s only for survey collection purposes. Detailed eligibility criteria can be found here: https://www.bestplacestoworknyc.com/eligibility-criteria
To be named to P&I's Best Places list, all firms met Best Companies' high threshold for inclusion and were evaluated against others of similar size. Individual firm profiles, which were compiled based on survey results, reflect U.S. employment numbers and were confirmed by Best Companies in the summer. Company and employee comments were edited for space, style and clarity. Assets under management or advisement are as of June 30, unless otherwise noted. To participate, companies had to have at least 20 employees in the U.S., at least $100 million of discretionary assets under management or advisement and be in business for at least one year. An anonymous employee survey, which aimed to evaluate.
