NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Star Mountain Capital, LLC ("Star Mountain"), a rapidly growing specialized investment manager with approximately $3.5 billion in AUM focused on investing in one of the largest and most underserved market segments in North America, established private small and medium-sized businesses (the “lower middle-market”), is pleased to announce that MaryAnn Stauffer has joined as a Managing Director. She will further the firm’s client services and distribution capabilities particularly within the high-net-worth channel in addition to institutional coverage. This market segment continues to have tremendous demand for private loans, especially Star Mountain’s differentiated, private-equity style approach of helping finance acquisitions of often aging private business owners who want to sell for personal reasons while regional banks continue to have limited abilities to service these needs.
Ms. Stauffer is the second former Goldman Sachs veteran to join Star Mountain so far this year. In February, former Goldman Sachs Partner George Mattson, a longtime Star Mountain Senior Advisor, joined full-time as President. Star Mountain has continued to develop a world-class team of investment and client service professionals who are looking to invest their own capital alongside clients in a return optimizing manner. Star Mountain’s differentiated and purpose-built platform has attracted a wide range of sophisticated institutional, family office and high-net-worth investors from the U.S. and globally.
“We are delighted to welcome MaryAnn to the Star Mountain family as we continue to focus on bringing distinctive value to investors and business owners in an aligned manner through our purpose-built platform focused on the lower middle-market,” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital’s Founder and CEO. “Our mission is to provide as many investors as possible with high quality access to this segment of the private markets including through customized investment structures to help accomplish their goals which generally include capital protection, portfolio diversification, current yield and overall returns,” he added.
Ms. Stauffer will join the firm’s new Philadelphia office, which is Star Mountain’s 11th office nationwide.
“I am thrilled to join an incredibly talented team of professionals that are bringing tangible value to registered investment advisors, institutions and investors at large, as well as lower middle-market business owners,” said MaryAnn Stauffer. “Star Mountain Capital has an aligned purpose and mission of investing with and helping grow leading private businesses in North America. This is an extremely compelling value proposition for my career, personal capital and trusted relationships, who are constantly looking for reliable and differentiated investments to complement their portfolio,” she added.
Prior to joining Star Mountain, Ms. Stauffer spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where she worked with some of the nation’s leading registered investment advisors, family offices and financial advisory firms, consulting with their investment committees on the markets, portfolio construction and various investment strategies across a broad array of asset classes. In this capacity, she led teams through extensive investment due diligence and research processes, leveraging her experience and investment acumen across capital markets, including equities, debt and alternatives.
Her alternative investment experience includes private credit / private lending in drawn down funds as well as BDC structures, private equity, and secondary fund investment strategies. As part of her leadership, she was an active member of the Goldman Sachs Women’s Network, which brought together female colleagues while assisting in bringing up the next generation of female executives within the firm.
Before Goldman Sachs, Ms. Stauffer was a Vice President at J.P. Morgan Asset Management and worked for Merrill Lynch earlier in her career.
Ms. Stauffer is active in the community and philanthropically, including serving on advancement and fundraising committees for the Holy Child School at Rosemont in Pennsylvania, and previously serving on the Investment Committee for Friends of Joshua House, in Tampa, Florida.
Ms. Stauffer holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Scranton and an MBA from Fordham University. She holds Series 7, 63 and 65 securities licenses.
About Star Mountain
With approximately $3.5 billion in assets under management (as of May 31, 2023), Star Mountain takes a data-driven approach to investing into the North American lower middle-market through two complementary investment strategies: (i) direct debt and equity investing and (ii) secondaries (acquiring LP interests and direct assets and making primary LP commitments) and NAV loans to funds. Star Mountain believes these complementary strategies provide data-enhanced, scalable, diversified and customizable access for its institutional and high-net-worth investors to established businesses that generally have at least $15 million in annual revenues and under $50 million in EBITDA. Its investors include public pensions, private pensions, insurance companies, commercial banks, endowments, foundations, family offices and high-net-worth individuals. Star Mountain is 100% employee-owned and shares its profits with 100% of its employees as part of its focus on maximizing value for its stakeholders and investors through alignment of interests.
Since 2010 through May 2023, Star Mountain has made over 200 direct investments in businesses and over 40 secondary / fund investments within its Collaborative Ecosystem®, focused on the North American lower middle-market. One of Star Mountain’s specialties is seeking current cash income for investors that is materially above the typical yields found in the public markets, often accompanied with potential long-term capital gains equity returns and low correlation to public markets through its distinctive origination, underwriting and value-added investment capabilities.
For the fourth straight year, Star Mountain was again named one of the 2022 Best Places to Work by Crain’s New York Business as well as once again one of the 2022 Best Places to Work by Pensions & Investments.
Star Mountain believes its focus and dedication has been productive for job creation and economic development including in underserved areas and communities. 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 ®.
Star Mountain has a dedicated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Committee led by Anne Yang, Strategic Portfolio Manager & ESG Committee Chair, who was formerly a Managing Director & Member of Executive Office at Goldman Sachs. Star Mountain believes that ESG is aligned with financial stability and long-term shareholder value creation.
As part of its ESG program, 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://bestcompaniesgroup.com/best-companies-to-work-for-in-new-york/eligibility/
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 employee engagement and satisfaction, accounted for 75% of a firm’s score; an employer survey, which evaluated workplace policies, practices, benefits and demographics, made up 25%. https://bestcompaniesgroup.com/best-places-to-work-in-money-management/eligibility/
