BRETT HICKEY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Executive
- Managing Director - Client Services
30+ years of investor relations, business development and investment advisory experience
Mr. Johnson is a senior executive with 30+ years of investment industry experience working with some of the most sophisticated institutions and family office investors on their portfolio investments.
Mr. Johnson spent over 15 years at BlackRock, the $9 trillion AUM global multi-asset investment manager. As a Managing Director and member of the Institutional Client Business Group, he advised and provided oversight for some of the largest and most sophisticated domestic institutional client relationships. He oversaw approximately $40 billion of client capital invested across a broad range of global strategies. At BlackRock, he worked under current Star Mountain Senior Advisor, Doug Waggoner, who led BlackRock's U.S. & Canada Institutional Client Business Group.
Mr. Johnson was most recently a Managing Director, Head of Investor Relations & Fundraising at Backcast Partners, a $1.2 billion AUM private credit manager focused on senior lending to non-sponsored and sponsor backed companies in the U.S. lower middle-market. Mr. Johnson was responsible for all aspects of the fundraising process including coordination of investment consultants for larger institutional clients.
Prior to Backcast, Mr. Johnson was a Managing Director at PineBridge Investments as part of the Americas Institutional Sales Group where he focused on middle-market direct lending, mezzanine credit and secondary investment strategies. He helped restructure the U.S. product suite and played an integral part in the firm's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) effort.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Johnson was a Vice President at JPMorgan Asset Management responsible for building and managing direct relationships with over 30 clients representing total AUM of more than $10 billion. While at JPMorgan Asset Management, he was selected to join a group of 37 professionals from its nine global offices in a rigorous five-month program designed to build core competencies in all product lines and client areas.
Mr. Johnson started his career as a tax specialist at KPMG.
Mr. Johnson is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has an MBA from The Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. He currently serves on the Board of Regents for Delbarton School where he holds three positions: Vice Chairman of the Board of Regents, Chairman - Finance and Audit Committee, and member of the Investment Committee.
Job Titles:
- Strategic Portfolio Partner & ESG Committee Chair
- Strategic Portfolio Partner & ESG Committee Chair / Managing Director & Member of the Executive Office, Goldman Sachs
Anne Yang has over 20 years of asset management, investment banking and corporate finance experience including Managing Director in the Mergers & Acquisition group and member of the Executive Office at Goldman Sachs. She has extensive experience with Fortune 500 companies, private equity firms, investment advisors and high growth small and medium-sized businesses.
Ms. Yang's recent transaction and advisory experience includes representing Blackstone Group LP in its leveraged acquisition of AlliedBarton, a private placement of capital for the acquisition of failed banks from the FDIC and a number of assignments with major private equity firms, hedge funds and corporations.
In addition to her time at Goldman Sachs, Ms. Yang worked in the investment banking divisions of Bank of America and Citigroup; served as an Investment Analyst for Strong Capital Management in the management of a $4.5 billion public mutual fund investment portfolio; and, worked in the Merchant Banking Group of First Boston investing firm capital in leveraged buyouts.
Ms. Yang received both her B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and her M.B.A. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Austin Ericson - Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Legal Officer
Job Titles:
- Chief Compliance Officer
- Legal Counsel
- Adjunct Professor at University of Miami School of Law
- Legal Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer / Assistant General Counsel, H.I.G. Capital ( $50 Bn AUM Private Credit and Private Equity Alternative Investment Manager )
- Legal Counsel and Compliance Executive
Assistant General Counsel, H.I.G. Capital ($50+ bn AUM private credit and private equity alternative investment manager)
Associate Attorney, Corporate and Transactional, McDermott Will & Emery (1,400+ attorney global law firm)
Mr. Ericson is an experienced legal counsel and compliance executive with extensive experience in asset management including private credit, BDC and private equity investment funds and strategies.
Mr. Ericson was most recently Assistant General Counsel at H.I.G. Capital, LLC, a $50+ billion global alternative investment firm, where he served as the primary internal counsel focused on fund formation, regulatory management, and compliance across a variety of private capital investment strategies including private credit and private equity. During his tenure with H.I.G., they grew assets under management by approximately 150% from $20 billion to over $50 billion. Products he helped structure and administer included private credit funds, private equity funds, rated note investment structures for insurance companies, separate managed accounts, a publicly traded business development company (BDC) and both static and active collateralized loan obligation vehicles (CLOs). His responsibilities included implementing, creating and monitoring compliance processes throughout all functions of the firm including fundraising, general corporate matters, marketing review, regulatory filings, and administering H.I.G.'s compliance program. His legal and compliance responsibilities also included negotiating investor side letters and reviewing all marketing materials.
At H.I.G. he also assisted with U.S. regulatory and public company filings (Form ADV, Form PF, S-1, 8-K, 10-Q/K, 13G/A, etc.) and advised investment professionals and portfolio companies on a variety of corporate, sanctions, data privacy, employment, litigation, finance, contractual, and ESG matters. He also worked actively with the private investment teams on various legal matters including diligencing, acquiring and managing investments.
Prior to H.I.G., Mr. Ericson was an Associate Attorney in the Corporate and Transactional Department of McDermott Will & Emery LLP a 1,400+ lawyer global corporate law firm working with leading alternative investment and corporate clients, including H.I.G. where he would later join. He drafted and negotiated all ancillary merger & acquisition documents including employment agreements, seller notes, stock option plans, escrow agreements, restricted activities agreements, and reviewed and revised all core transaction documentation, working with specialists, attorneys, and paralegals. Mr. Ericson led legal diligence processes on over 25 closed mergers and acquisitions (including new platform investments, tuck-ins and add-ons).
Mr. Ericson is a graduate of the University of South Florida with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law where he graduated Cum Laude and in the top 5% of his graduating class. At the University of Florida Levin College of Law, Mr. Ericson served as Managing Editor of the Florida Law Review and the Chief of Communications for the Association of Law and Business. He was also elected to the Order of the Coif, an honorary scholastic society encouraging excellence in legal education recognizing law students who attained a high grade of scholarship.
Mr. Ericson is also an Adjunct Professor at University of Miami School of Law where he teaches a course on Drafting and Negotiating Private Equity Related Agreements.
Job Titles:
- Operating Partner With Star Mountain Capital
- Telecom & Communications Advisor ( New York, NY )
Billy Goldstein is an Operating Partner with Star Mountain Capital, LLC, helping add value to the firm's underlying operating companies including assisting with identification of strategic add-on acquisitions and other M&A and financing related matters. He has over 20 years of experience running industry practices, advising C-level executives and boards of directors, negotiating transactions, leading deal teams and identifying principal investing opportunities.
As a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs, Macquarie Capital and J.P. Morgan, Mr. Goldstein brings significant industry and finance expertise, as well as a keen understanding of the best practices employed by many successful growth companies. He has extensive deal execution expertise having completed M&A transaction with aggregate value of over $100 billion and helped raise over $36 billion in debt and equity for clients.
In the most recent five years, Mr. Goldstein was a Managing Director and Head of North America Telecom at Macquarie Capital, a global financial services firm with 13,900 professionals across 28 countries. Macquarie is also the premier infrastructure investment and asset management firm with over $350 billion of assets under management. Mr. Goldstein helped build and grow the merchant bank in the U.S., advised and raised capital for public and private TMT companies globally ranging from early-stage to mid-caps. He also sourced and evaluated principal investments for equity, mezzanine and debt, and was a member of the firm's M&A Fairness Committee.
From 1998 through 2009, Mr. Goldstein was with Goldman Sachs where he was a Managing Director in the Investment Banking Division's TMT group. He was Co-head of the Global Satellite Sector, Head of the Wireless Tower Sector, and also Co-head of the Hispanic and Latin Network for the investment bank.
Prior to working at Goldman Sachs, Mr. Goldstein worked at JP Morgan in New York and London. He also worked as an engineer at AT&T Bell Laboratories and GE Aerospace.
Mr. Goldstein holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
30 years of experience investing senior debt, junior debt, private equity and making fund investments
Co-Head of North American Private Finance at Barings ($325 billion AUM subsidiary of MassMutual) and Chairman of mezzanine and private debt investment committees
20 years of U.S. LMM private equity, private credit and secondary fund investment experience
Salomon Smith Barney / Citigroup FIG Investment Banker, analyzing & advising on buying & selling $18bn of assets / finance companies
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive Chairman / Head, Credit Suisse Alternatives ( $100bn AUM )
Job Titles:
- Client Services & Business Development
Job Titles:
- Managing Director / Co - Founder & Managing Partner, Halyard Capital, Lower Middle - Market PE Firm ( $600mm AUM )
Job Titles:
- Strategic Portfolio Partner
Completed over $6.5bn of private equity and credit investments as Co-Head of U.S. Merchant Banking, BNP Paribas ( $2tn in AUM)
Job Titles:
- Client Services & Business Development
Over 15 years of C-suite / senior level management experience in overseeing complex organizational matters in a broad range of industries
Job Titles:
- Managing Director & Chairman of Investment Committee / Co - Head of BAML Capital Partners and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer / Founder, U.S. LMM Interim CFO Advisory Business
25 years of finance experience with the last 15 spent as a private credit & equity investor completing over 50 transactions for $6+ bn
Former Investment Committee member for an SBIC fund and a BDC led by former Head of Global Credit of Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Job Titles:
- Board Member of the Retirement Industry Trade Association
- Senior Advisor ( New York, NY )
Mr. Glovier has approximately 30 years of experience as an investor and operator following the start of his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. He also has leadership experience through serving as a board member for numerous financial services, manufacturing, business services, communications, and technology companies.
Mr. Glovier recently served as Chairman, CEO, and President of PENSCO Trust Company, a specialty custodian of alternative investments for retirement accounts with nearly $15 billion in assets under custody and owned by $7.5+ billion in assets Opus Bank (NASDAQ: OPB). He also served as Opus Bank's Senior Executive Vice President where he headed wealth services as well as Opus Equity Partners, a growth equity investment fund.
Prior to Opus Bank and PENSCO Trust Company, Mr. Glovier was a Managing Director of $40+ billion Fortress Investment Group for nearly a decade where he led private equity and debt capital investments in several industries with a focus on financial services. Mr. Glovier also founded the Private Equity Group within the Credit Funds Division at Fortress. Mr. Glovier orchestrated Fortress' investment in Opus Bank in September 2010 and was a founding board member of the bank.
Mr. Glovier started his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and then transitioned to private equity firm Nassau Capital. He then moved to become the co-head of the middle market buyout group of Perseus LLC, a nearly $2 billion in AUM private equity firm headquartered in Washington, DC.
Mr. Glovier is currently a board member of The Retirement Industry Trade Association, which is comprised of the nation's largest independent custodians in the retirement industry.
Mr. Glovier received a BA in Economics, cum laude, from Princeton University, as well as an MBA, as a Palmer Scholar, from the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania.
As an aligned Senior Advisor, Mr. Glovier assists Star Mountain Capital with deal origination relationships, industry and other strategic insights to help Star Mountain and its portfolio investments maximize value.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director With Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting
- Member of the Acquisition Advisory Panel
- Senior Advisor ( Washington, D.C. )
David Javdan is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting, LLC, ("Alvarez & Marsal") in Washington D.C. and New York and an appointed Deputy Attorney General to Governor Andrew Cuomo's "Commission to Investigate Public Corruption." As a former legal executive and federal and state financial regulator, he brings seasoned experience and credibility in the corporate and public sectors. He has extensive knowledge in private equity investing, small business lending, sophisticated financial transactions, complex financial accounting and audit matters, health care law and multi-party international litigation.
Prior to joining Alvarez & Marsal , Mr. Javdan served as General Counsel of the U.S. Small Business Administration ("SBA") which included being on the Investment Committee of the SBIC program. At the SBA, he worked closely with the White House and Office of Management and Budget Counsel, the U.S. Department of Justice, various U.S. attorneys, Inspectors General, Government Accountability Office auditors and the general counsels of various cabinet departments. He supervised approximately 450 professionals in 70 offices and served as CEO of the legal department. He was also a Chief Ethics Officer for an independent federal financial agency with a $125 billion loan and $30 billion venture capital portfolio and worked diligently with the agency's CFO to obtain the agency's first clean financial audit in seven years.
During his almost four years at SBA, Mr. Javdan was intimately involved with inner workings of the SBIC program. He served as Chief Legal Advisor to the program, providing binding legal opinions and having to approve or disapprove every SBIC application that came through the program for legal sufficiency. He and his Deputy General Counsel comprised two out of the four active voting members of the Agency Licensing Committee that had final approval - or disapproval - of each and every SBIC application to the program during his tenure.
Mr. Javdan has served as a member of the Acquisition Advisory Panel, which reviews and proposes changes to federal procurement laws, a position he was appointed to by the White House Director of Federal Procurement Policy. He was also a member of the board of directors of the New York State Banking Department, chosen by Governor George Pataki and confirmed unanimously by the New York State Senate. Previously, he served as Special Counsel to the New York State Senate on Holocaust and Health Care issues. He was later appointed by Governor Pataki to the Technical Advisory Committee on Individual Health Care policy.
Before joining the SBA, Mr. Javdan was an attorney with Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, where he primarily focused on insurance, international financial institutions, health care, and litigation. There, he represented the Austrian Jewish community on Holocaust restitution matters, leading negotiating sessions with the U.S. State Department and Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and participated in complex, multi-party international litigation.
Mr. Javdan earned a bachelor's degree from Columbia University and a Juris Doctor degree from Fordham Law School. He helped found and served as pro bono counsel to a number of charitable organizations, including the JED Foundation, a national organization dedicated to helping prevent suicide among college students and the Iranian American Jewish Federation. He also served on the board of trustees of an NAIS elementary school, on the national board of the Columbia College Alumni Association and as a member of the Coro Foundation's Leadership New York program. He is currently a trustee on the executive committee of the New York Citizen's Budget Commission and a board member of Hope Street Group.
Job Titles:
- Communications Strategist, Media Trainer, and CEO at Pure Performance Communications
- Senior Advisor ( New York, NY )
Deirdre Breakenridge is a business book author, communications strategist, media trainer, and CEO at Pure Performance Communications. As a 30+ year veteran in PR, marketing, and branding, she has worked with senior leaders at organizations, including JVC, Kraft, Nasdaq, NBA Events and Attractions, Siegel+Gale and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).
As the author of seven business books, Ms. Breakenridge shares proprietary research and concepts, and career experiences. She offers advice to help professionals navigate changing consumer behavior and an evolving media landscape. Her most recent book, "Answers for Ethical Marketers," was released by Routledge Publishing in April 2021, as a part of a book series. Also, in the series, her book Answers for Modern Communicators was recently named by Book Authority as one of the 100 Best Storytelling Books of All Time.
Ms. Breakenridge is a career-long storyteller and strategist, helping brands and professionals ignite the engagement around their communications, lead pressing media conversations, and grow influence in the market. For decades she has worked with executives on media and presentation training and advising marketing teams on award-winning PR and marketing programs.
Ms. Breakenridge has taught PR, branding, and social media courses for over 15 years, online and in the classroom at NYU, UMASS at Amherst, Rutgers University, and Fairleigh Dickinson University. She took her passion for teaching to Lynda.com, and when later acquired by LinkedIn, she became a LinkedIn Learning Instructor, developing more than eight video courses on PR and marketing.
As an international speaker, Ms. Breakenridge shares her research and career journey in PR, marketing, branding, and social media communications. She has been blogging at PR Strategies for over 12 years, and she is also the host of the podcast Women Worldwide. In its 7th year, the podcast has approximately 2 million downloads.
Ms. Breakenridge was previously the host of a Live show for Nasdaq, interviewing thought leaders and influencers on various media topics, which broadcast out of the Nasdaq MarketSite studio in Times Square, New York City.
Ms. Breakenridge received her MBA in Marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey in 2002.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor ( St. Paul, MN )
Dennis Duerst, CFA had a 39-year career at 3M Company (NYSE: MMM), a multinational conglomerate corporation operating in the fields of industry, worker safety, health care, and consumer goods.
Mr. Duerst was most recently President at 3M Investment Management Corporation, the $40 billion investment manager for 3M's global retirement plans. In the US, he launched initial investments in hedge funds and private credit and focused on absolute return and private market investing. Mr. Duerst managed an innovative asset allocation and investment approach which resulted in well-funded plans, improved risk adjusted returns and over $2 billion in value from outperformance versus benchmarks. He served as President since 2003 when he was promoted from Director of Financial Risk Management where he led 3M's global capital markets and risk management activities.
Mr. Duerst is formally a member of the Investment Advisory Council for the $130 billion Minnesota State Board of Investments as well as a current member of the Board of Directors and Chairs the Finance and Investment Committee for the $90 million St. Croix Valley Foundation. Mr. Duerst is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Nicholas Center for Corporate Finance and Investment Banking at the University of Wisconsin School of Business.
Mr. Duerst was an original member of the Board of Directors of the Committee on the Investment of Employee Benefit Assets (CIEBA) and recently served on its public policy task force. He has also served on the LP advisory committees for a number of private equity and private credit funds.
A sought-after speaker at conferences including Institutional Investor, MFA, Pension & Investments, aiCIO Magazine, Global ARC and CIEBA, Mr. Duerst has received industry recognition numerous times for innovation and thought leadership by organizations that include Institutional Investor and aiCIO.
Mr. Duerst received a BBA in Finance and Management from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and an MBA from the University of Minnesota and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
As an aligned Senior Advisor, Mr. Duerst assists Star Mountain Capital with deal origination and investor relationships, industry and other strategic insights to help Star Mountain and its portfolio investments maximize value.
Job Titles:
- Credit Suisse As a Managing Director and Deputy Head of Strategic Risk Management
- Senior Advisor ( New York, NY )
Dr. Anthony Pesco brings 25 years of finance, risk management and investment experience to Star Mountain as a strategic investor and Senior Advisor. Tony recently retired from Credit Suisse after 18 years where he held several leadership roles including running a 500-person global team which generated approximately $2 billion in annual revenues.
Tony initially joined Credit Suisse as a Managing Director and Deputy Head of Strategic Risk Management and was responsible for evaluating and managing significant balance sheet risks and recommending corrective action where appropriate. He was the chief architect of the Credit Suisse economic risk capital allocation model that the bank still uses today to allocate risk capital amongst its businesses.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor ( Holmdel, NJ )
Mr. Kirsch was the Chief Investment Officer and Executive Vice President at Aflac Inc. (NYSE: AFL) and the President of Aflac Asset Management, the asset management subsidiary of Aflac Inc until April 2023. In this role since 2011, he was responsible for building and overseeing Aflac's investment strategy and investment portfolio representing over $100 billion of assets with investment teams in New York and Tokyo.
Prior to Aflac, he served as Global Head of Insurance Asset Management at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), part of Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) from 2007 through 2011. During his tenure he built out this specialty business globally raising over $50 billion of assets and propelling GSAM as a world class insurance asset manager.
Prior to Goldman Sachs, Mr. Kirsch spent 27 years at Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) within Deutsche Asset Management and Bankers Trust Company in several leadership roles including Global Head of Insurance Asset Management, Head of North America Fixed Income and Head of Stable Value Fixed Income.
Mr. Kirsch currently serves on the board of Kuvare Holdings, a private equity owned financial services platform that provides insurance, reinsurance, and asset management solutions. He also serves on the boards of two private asset managers under the Aflac Asset Management general account investments. He also remains a Senior Consultant to Aflac Inc.
Mr. Kirsch's philanthropic activities include serving as a Trustee of the Baruch College Fund where he is Chair of the Investment Committee. In addition, he is a Trustee of the Jersey Shore University Medical Center Foundation and serves on the Investment Committee of the Hackensack-Meridian Hospital.
Mr. Kirsch received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Baruch College in 1984 and a Master of Business Administration from Pace University in 1988. He earned his CFA designation in 1990.
As an aligned Senior Advisor, Mr. Kirsch assists Star Mountain with deal origination and investor relationships, industry and other strategic insights to help Star Mountain's stakeholders and portfolio investments maximize value.
Job Titles:
- Senior Executive
- Senior Advisor ( Chicago Region )
Erik Falk is a senior executive focused on strategic initiatives at Magnetar Capital, a $13+ billion alternative asset management firm. Until early 2017, Mr. Falk oversaw the private funds as a Head of Private Credit within KKR's (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.) $35 billion credit business and served on the Private Credit Investment Committee, the Leveraged Credit Investment Committee and the Portfolio Management Committee. He also oversaw KKR's investment in Star Mountain. Before joining KKR in 2008, Mr. Falk spent eight years at Deutsche Bank where he held several roles including founding the Special Situations Group and Co-Heading the Global Securitized Products Group.
Mr. Falk has served on the boards of the Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA), Corporate Capital Trust and Corporate Capital Trust II - business development companies sub-advised by KKR - and various companies on behalf of Deutsche Bank. He is currently a member of the advisory committee and of the Investment Committee for The Public Theater.
Mr. Falk began his career in the Asset-Backed Securities group at Credit Suisse First Boston. He holds both a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University.
As an aligned personal investor and Senior Advisor, Mr. Falk assists Star Mountain Capital and its CEO, Brett Hickey, with strategic advice and thought leadership to help the firm and its portfolio investments maximize value.
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner at Convergency Partners
- Senior Advisor ( New York, NY )
Frank Porcelli has had a distinguished 30+ year career in asset management and wealth management. Currently a Senior Advisor at BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), one of the world's largest asset management firms at nearly $10 trillion of assets under management. While he was Head of BlackRock's U.S. Wealth Business and member of their Operating Committee, he helped that division grow assets under management from $250 billion to $1 trillion.
Mr. Porcelli is widely known in the industry as an exceptional leader with an open and collaborative leadership style. He has an extensive network of contacts throughout the industry and has access to virtually all organizational levels within nearly every major firm.
Mr. Porcelli retired from BlackRock after 14 years, where he served as a member of the firm's Operating Committee and head of the firm's US wealth advisory business. As the head of US Wealth Advisory, he had been responsible for integrating iShares with active coverage, creating the independent channel and shifting BlackRock's strategic focus from product sales to portfolio construction. More recently, he primarily focused on the firm's digital wealth business, bringing Aladdin wealthtech products to the US markets, developing and distributing BlackRock's retirement platform iRetire, as well as serving as an advisor to and board member of iCapital.
Prior to joining BlackRock, Porcelli served as the managing director of institutional sales and consultant relations at Putnam Investments for six years and director of corporate asset management services at Goldman Sachs for three years. Previously, he held various roles at Smith Barney, including director of retirement services, head of unit investment trusts, chief operating officer of Smith Barney Mutual Funds and manager of strategic planning.
Mr. Porcelli is currently Managing Partner at Convergency Partners, a unique advisory and consulting business focused on the formulation and execution of growth strategies for asset management, wealth management and financial technology clients.
He earned his bachelor's degree in accounting from Pace University and is on the Board of Trustees of Partnership Schools, a non-profit supporting elementary school education in underserved communities.
As an aligned Senior Advisor, Mr. Porcelli assists Star Mountain with deal origination and investor relationships, industry and other strategic insights to help Star Mountain and its portfolio investments maximize value.
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive Vice Chairman
35+ years of private investing, investment banking and corporate board / governance experience
Job Titles:
- Senior Executive
- Chairman & CEO of EGADS Group
- Senior Advisor ( Toronto, Canada )
Gilbert Palter is a senior executive with over 30 years of investment and operations experience, in both private and public companies, in the U.S. and Canada.
Mr. Palter is Chairman & CEO of EGADS Group, a family office investing in private and public companies and taking an active board role adding value in such areas as corporate culture, strategy, operational excellence, acquisitions and financings, and compensation.
He is also Co-founder, Chief Investment Officer & Managing Partner of EdgeStone Capital Partners, which he helped build into one of Canada's leading private equity firms, managing approximately $2.5 billion in assets.
Prior to co-founding EdgeStone, he was the Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Eladdan Capital Partners, a Toronto-based private equity fund targeting middle-market Canadian and U.S. companies. He also founded Eladdan Enterprises, a boutique investment bank specializing in providing buy side mergers and acquisitions advice to Canadian and U.S. companies, particularly on cross-border acquisitions and investments.
Mr. Palter started his career in merchant banking at Morgan Stanley in the 1980s and then moved to McKinsey & Company as a management consultant advising companies on strategy, operations and organization.
He currently serves as Chairman of Specialty Commerce Corp. and Avid Group Inc., Vice-Chairman of Tenerity Inc., and is a Director of Sagicor Financial Corporation Limited (TSX:SFC, as well as a Director of various subsidiaries) and Porter Airlines Holdings Inc. He is a former Chairman of Affinion Group, Aurigen Capital Limited, BFI Canada, BreconRidge Corporation, Continental Alloys & Services, cxLoyalty Group, Farley Windows, Hair Club Group, and Stephenson's Holdings Inc., and was previously a Director of Alliance Films, Atlantic Power Corporation (NYSE:AT / TSX:ATP), Center for Diagnostic Imaging, Lavalife, Mitel Networks, RPX Corporation (NSDQ:RPXC), Trimaster Manufacturing, Tunnel Hill Partners, and Xantrex Technology.
Mr. Palter holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where he attended on a Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship and graduated as a Baker Scholar and winner of the John L. Loeb Fellowship in Finance. He was the Gold Medalist in his graduating class at the University of Toronto where he attended on the J.W. Billes Scholarship earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Economics.
As an aligned Senior Advisor, Mr. Palter assists Star Mountain Capital with deal origination and investor relationships, industry and other strategic insights to help Star Mountain and its portfolio investments maximize value.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor ( Naples, FL )
Mr. Summe has 30+ years of experience as an investor, operator and C-level executive with additional leadership experience through serving as a board member for multiple companies in the engineering, aerospace, finance and data analytics industries. He has completed over 200 private equity investments as an investment committee member and has also acquired or sold more than 40 companies as a company CEO.
Mr. Summe spent 5 years as Vice Chairman, Partner, and Investment Committee member of the Global Buyout group at The Carlyle Group ( $375 bn AUM). He was also a member of Carlyle's Operating Committee.
Prior to Carlyle, Mr. Summe served as a Senior Advisor to Goldman Sachs Capital Partners. During his tenure at Goldman Sachs, he was the interim CEO of the Hawker-Beechcraft Corp (a Goldman Sachs Capital Partners portfolio company).
Before moving into private equity, Mr. Summe joined PerkinElmer (NYSE: PKI) in 1998 as President and in 1999 was elected Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. During his tenure at PerkinElmer until 2009, Mr. Summe transformed the company from a diversified defense contractor known as EG&G to a global technology leader in health sciences. The cumulative returns to shareholders through his tenure as CEO were more than triple the S&P 500 Index over the same period.
Prior to joining PerkinElmer, Mr. Summe was with AlliedSignal, now Honeywell International, serving as the President of General Aviation Avionics, President of the Aerospace Engines Group and President of the Automotive Products Group.
Prior to joining AlliedSignal, Mr. Summe was the General Manager of Commercial Motors at General Electric and was a Partner with the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, Inc.
Current public and private board roles include NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ: NXPI) where he is the Chairman of the Compensation Committee, State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) where he is the Chairman of the Strategy Committee, Avantor Inc. (NYSE: AVTR) where he is the Chairman of the Nomination & Governance Committee and Pella Corporation where he is the Chairman of the Compensation Committee.
Mr. Summe holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Kentucky and the University of Cincinnati, as well as an M.B.A. (with distinction) from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is in the University of Kentucky's Hall of Distinction.
Mr. Summe assists Star Mountain Capital with deal origination relationships, underwriting insights, portfolio management value-add and assisting with overall strategic leadership to help Star Mountain, its portfolio investments and investors maximize value in an aligned manner.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director / Chairman of Licensing Division & Investment Committee Member at U.S. Small Business Administration ( SBA ) SBIC Program
Job Titles:
- Founder and Managing Partner at Will Ventures
- Media and Sports Advisor ( Boston
Isaiah Kacyvenski's diverse background includes earning two degrees from Harvard, playing in the National Football League for 8 years between, and achieving success as an experienced entrepreneur and investor.
Mr. Kacyvenski is currently a Founder and Managing Partner at Will Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that leverages the power of sports to change the world.
Mr. Kacyvenski was also a Founder and Managing Director of the Sports Innovation Lab, a leading market research and advisory firm delivering insights on intersection of sports and technology. The Sports Innovation Lab evaluates and identifies the technology products and services that will power the future of sports. The Boston-based, market research and advisory firm uses data analysis to reveal compelling stories that mobilize global partnerships among startups, investment capital firms, and corporate influencers.
Mr. Kacyvenski was formerly the Global Head of Business Development at MC10, a cutting-edge conformal electronics company based in Lexington, MA, where he was involved in the conceptualization, product development, and business development of wearable technology products in Biomedical Research and Consumer applications-including Sports and Fitness.
Mr. Kacyvenski is also an investor in, and advisor to, several companies in technology, sports, biotech, consumer, media and sports medicine.
After being named the Harvard University Male Athlete of the Year and becoming the highest draft pick in Harvard history, Mr. Kacyvenski played in the NFL for eight years, was elected Special Teams Captain three years in a row and served in this role during Super Bowl XL with the Seattle Seahawks.
Mr. Kacyvenski holds a Cum Laude Bachelor degree in Pre-Medicine from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
20 years of private capital investment experience completing 100 transactions valued at $5bn in total
Founding Member & Head, Thoma Bravo Credit (division of $100+ bn software-focused PE firm) deploying $3+ bn across 50+ deals
Principal & Founding Member, Summit Partners Credit (division of $35+ bn growth equity & credit firm)
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor ( Seattle, WA )
James McIntire has had a distinguished forty-year career in government policy and finance. Most recently, Mr. McIntire served two terms as Washington's State Treasurer from 2009 to 2017. As Treasurer, Mr. McIntire was responsible for $400 billion of transactions per year, a $21 billion debt portfolio, investments of $18 billion of assets and public deposits of $6 billion. Mr. McIntire is the immediate past president of the National Association of State Treasurers.
Mr. McIntire also served three terms as Chairman of the $110 billion Washington State Investment Board. The Washington State Investment Board manages investments for 17 retirement plans for public employees, teachers, school employees, law enforcement officers, fire fighters and judges and has nearly $20 billion allocated to private equity investments.
Mr. McIntire is the former Director of the Fiscal Policy Center at the University of Washington and served on the faculty of the University's School of Public Policy and Governance for 25 years. Mr. McIntire also served in the Washington State House of Representatives from 1998 to 2009. He began his career working in the U.S. Senate for Hubert Humphrey (the 38th Vice President of the United States) and served as a policy advisor to congressional committee chairmen and Washington governors.
Mr. McIntire holds a BA in Urban and Regional Affairs from Macalester College, a MA in Public Policy from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Washington.
Job Titles:
- Controller / SVP, Finance / Operations, CAIS ( $3bn Alternative Investment Platform )
Job Titles:
- President of CBIZ Talent & Compensation Solutions
- Senior Advisor ( Kansas City, MO )
Jay Meschke has over 25 years of experience in the talent management field. Mr. Meschke is currently the President of CBIZ Talent & Compensation Solutions and EFL Associates and leads a nationwide organization that helps attract, retain, and develop C-Suite executives.
During his career in the executive search field leading EFL Associates since 1992 and through its merger with CBIZ (a $1+ billion NYSE-listed professional services firm) in 2008, Mr. Meschke has achieved milestones that place him in the top 1% of all executive search consultants nationwide. He has completed more than 700 successful senior-level search assignments in multiple industries and functionalities across the US.
Routinely sought after as a subject matter expert in the field of talent management, Mr. Meschke has been quoted in numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, US News & World Report, CNN.com, Fortune.com, MSNBC.com, Entrepreneur Magazine, Human Resource Executive, and Business Week. Mr. Meschke has also been a guest speaker for distinguished groups such as the National Association of Corporate Directors, the Society of Corporate Secretaries, Game on Business Talk Radio, and the Society for Human Resource Management.
Prior to his career in talent management, Mr. Meschke had over a decade of experience in the banking industry as President, Chief Lending Officer, and Corporate Banking Officer in banks ranging from a de novo community banking start up to a $20+ billion commercial banking institution now part of Bank of America.
Highly active in civic and philanthropic pursuits, Mr. Meschke served as Chair of KCPT Public Television, the University of Kansas School of Business Board of Advisors, and the Shawnee Mission Educational Foundation. Mr. Meschke was an instructor for the Kauffman Foundation's FastTrac Entrepreneur's Program and continues to serve on the boards of the University of Kansas School of Business, Shawnee Mission Medical Center Foundation, and the Enterprise Center of Johnson Country.
Mr. Meschke has an MBA in Finance & Marketing and a BS in Business Administration from the University of Kansas.
As an aligned Senior Advisor, Mr. Meschke assists Star Mountain Capital with strategic advice on its own team development as well as helping to analyze and optimize Star Mountain's portfolio company management teams.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director - Client Services
30+ years of corporate banking, lending, private credit, private equity and investment experience
Managing Director and member of Strategic Client Group advising some of the largest and most sophisticated clients at JPMorgan Asset Management ($2+ trillion AUM)
20+ years of U.S. LMM investment banking, private equity and private credit investment experience
Job Titles:
- Director and Chair of the Governance Committee for Miracle League of Westchester
- Senior Advisor ( New York, NY )
Mr. Olert has 30 years of experience across financial services, capital markets, credit, and risk management with a deep understanding of crisis management, credit research, compliance, cyber security and corporate governance. He qualifies as an audit committee financial expert and is an adjunct professor at Fordham University.
Mr. Olert retired from Fitch Group, Inc. in 2018 after serving as Group Chief Risk Officer and Executive Vice President reporting directly to the CEO and managing a team of 100+ personnel. He was tapped for this newly created role in 2015 in response to increasing threats of a diversifying company with over 3,000 employees, 150 offices, operating in 34 countries.
While at Fitch in 2008, he was named Global Head of Structured Credit and charged with delivering critical restructuring in the early stages of the financial crisis. He was then appointed Chief Credit Officer in 2010, and later Executive Committee Member in 2012. Earlier roles held at Fitch Ratings include Co-Head North American Corporate Finance, Co-Head North American Financial Institutions, Head of REITs, and Director U.S. Banks.
Prior to joining Fitch, Mr. Olert held roles at Chase Securities Inc., MetLife, and Chase Manhattan Bank.
Mr. Olert currently serves as a director and chair of the governance committee for Miracle League of Westchester, a director and finance committee member of the Jack DeVito Foundation and chairs the curriculum committee for Geneseo's Business Advisory Council.
Mr. Olert completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School, obtained his Master of Business Administration at Fordham University, and his Bachelor of Science in Management Science and Finance at the State of University of New York at Geneseo.
As an aligned Senior Advisor, Mr. Olert assists Star Mountain Capital with risk management and capital protection to help Star Mountain and its portfolio investments maximize value.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer & Chief Technology Officer / COO & CTO, Visionary LMM Advisory Business
Job Titles:
- CEO of AgriFiber Solutions LLC
- Manufacturing & Operating Advisor ( Chicago, IL )
Jonathan Kahn has over 30 years of investing, operating and risk management experience. Mr. Kahn is currently CEO of AgriFiber Solutions LLC, an agricultural technology and manufacturing company located in Mundelein, Illinois. AgriFiber's innovative corn and oat based fibers provide specialty ingredient solutions to some of the world's largest food manufacturers.
Before that, Mr. Kahn founded, operated and sold Geneva Wood Fuels, a forest products manufacturing facility. Geneva Wood Fuels was acquired by Lignetics, Inc, the largest residential heat wood pellet manufacturer in North America.
Previously, Mr. Kahn co-founded Castlebridge Risk Solutions, a pioneer risk management consulting firm that provided derivatives trading solutions to high net worth individuals, money management firms, and family offices. As part of Castlebridge, Mr. Kahn ran a multi-currency options trading fund for a high net worth family, managing $1.2 billion in assets. Previously, Mr. Kahn worked at RIK Options Inc., a Chicago Board Options Exchange market maker and trading firm.
Mr. Kahn also worked at Lehman Brothers as a Vice President in their Corporation Coverage and Capital Markets group. After finishing a two-year commercial bank training program out of college, Mr. Kahn completed the Salomon Brothers Sales and Trading training program and began his career on a trading desk specializing in fixed income investments.
Mr. Kahn holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Bowdoin College, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.
Job Titles:
- Founder & Managing Partner of a & R Strategy Partners
- Operating Partner ( Kansas City, MO )
Joyce Hrinya has nearly 30 years of experience leading companies and efficiently building profitable consumer brands. She has held executive leadership positions in general management, marketing, strategic planning, and business development.
Ms. Hrinya is the Founder & Managing Partner of A & R Strategy Partners where she assists owners, boards and CEOs of small to mid-size consumer businesses with customer-centric omni-channel brand strategies focused on differentiated planning of online and offline tactics. Past clients include See's Candies, Fechheimer, and Hallmark.
Previously, Ms. Hrinya was a Managing Director & Operating Partner at Z Capital Partners, a value-oriented middle market private equity firm with $2.3 billion of regulatory assets and committed capital under management. There she served as the CEO for Famous Brands International (the parent company of Mrs. Fields and TCBY).
Ms. Hrinya has served on the Board of Directors of Famous Brands International and Modere and currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors at Woodward Communications Inc.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director - Client Services
20+ years of portfolio management, investor relations & financial systems experience
Job Titles:
- Co - Chairman of the Integrated Systems Center at the University of Alabama
- Founder & Principal of Impact Partners Global
- Operating Partner ( Birmingham, AL )
Mark Froehlich has over 30 years of experience in risk management and value creation.
Mr. Froehlich is currently the Founder & Principal of Impact Partners Global, a risk management and business advisory group that also manages Aegis Alabama Venture Fund, a CAPCO fund that invests in private companies based in the state of Alabama.
Prior to Impact Partners Global, Mr. Froehlich was Treasurer of Thompson Tractor Company, one of the largest Caterpillar dealers in the United States. Earlier in his career Mr. Froehlich was Vice President of Thompson Investments, where he was responsible for the alternative asset investments for the firm. His responsibilities included making direct investments as well as selecting private equity, venture capital, and hedge fund managers for the firm.
Mr. Froehlich is currently the Co-Chairman of the Integrated Systems Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's School of Engineering and is a Financial Advisor for the Society for Design & Process Science, a global institute made up of engineering professors from all different engineering disciplines. Mr. Froehlich was previously on the board of directors of Secureworks, Inc. which was acquired by Dell in 2011.
Mr. Froehlich holds a BS in Business/Business Law from the University of Alabama and a Master's in Public and Private Management from Birmingham Southern College.
As an aligned Operating Partner, Mr. Froehlich assists Star Mountain Capital with strategic advice, thought leadership and insights to help the firm and its portfolio investments maximize value.
Job Titles:
- Strategic Portfolio Partner
25 years of capital markets, private and public capital investing with $15+ bn in completed transactions
Job Titles:
- Managing Director - Client Services
Job Titles:
- Chairman & CEO of District Equity
- Founder of Azimuth Business Solutions
- Senior Advisor ( Washington D.C. )
Mr. Bradsher has approximately 25 years of experience as an investor and operator with additional leadership experience through serving as a board member for several companies in the engineering, defense, and technology industries.
Mr. Bradsher is currently Chairman & CEO of District Equity, a private equity firm which is and has been an owner of several engineering and consulting firms serving the defense, healthcare, and cybersecurity industries.
Mr. Bradsher is also the Founder of Azimuth Business Solutions, a systems engineering and software development firm he has helped grow from inception, including through select acquisitions.
Mr. Bradsher received a BA in Management & Finance from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, as well as an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.
As an aligned Senior Advisor, Mr. Bradsher assists Star Mountain Capital with deal origination relationships, industry and other strategic insights to help Star Mountain and its portfolio investments maximize value.
Job Titles:
- Alternative Investments, Including Manager Due Diligence
Job Titles:
- Senior Executive
- CEO of Covr Financial Technologies
- Insurance & Financial Services Advisor ( Hartford, CT )
- Insurance & Financial Services Industry Advisor to Star Mountain
Michael Kalen is a senior executive with a track record of growth and profitability. He has led large life insurance, annuity and wealth management companies while also becoming a leader in InsurTech and FinTech innovation.
Mr. Kalen is currently the CEO of Covr Financial Technologies, a provider of digital life insurance solutions for financial institutions, banks and other financial partners.
Mr. Kalen began his career spending more than 20 years at Prudential Financial rising to the level of Senior Vice President.
Mr. Kalen then joined Hartford Life where he was President of US Individual Life operations, the 9th largest individual life business in the US. With over $1.0 billion in revenues and 1400 employees. He was then President and CEO of Hartford Life Europe and was an Executive Vice President in Strategic Planning where he co-led restructuring, expense reduction, M&A and capital management efforts throughout the financial crisis of 2008/09.
Prior to joining Covr Financial, he was President & CEO of Futurity First Financial Corp. (FFFC), a portfolio company of Aquiline Capital Partners, that is a national distribution network providing retirement solutions, annuities and life insurance to financial professionals with $2.5 billion in annual sales.
In his role as an Insurance & Financial Services Industry Advisor to Star Mountain, Mr. Kalen provides knowledge and insights across a variety of distribution, underwriting and technology trends within the insurance and financial services industries. Mr. Kalen assists the team with research/analysis and assists its portfolio companies in maximizing their value.
Job Titles:
- Board Director With Intermountain Healthcare Primary Children 's Hospital
- Managing Partner at Convergency Partners
- Senior Advisor, New Canaan, CT
Peter Cieszko has over 40 years of wide-ranging experience in the financial services industry solving business-wide strategic, distribution and operational challenges with a core focus on the investment management sector.
Mr. Cieszko is currently Managing Partner at Convergency Partners, a unique advisory and consulting business focused on the formulation and execution of growth strategies for asset management, wealth management and financial technology clients.
Prior to his current role, Mr. Cieszko was the Chief Client Officer & Head of Enterprise Strategic Relationships at American Century Investments ( $200 billion AUM), a leading global asset manager serving financial professionals, institutions, corporations and individual investors. At American Century, he reinvented end-to-end businesses, achieving new levels of market share, record gross sales, productivity and redemption rates. Additionally, he created an industry leading partnership with ADP resulting in a dramatic turnaround and sustainable profitability of American Century Investments' direct to investor business.
Previously, Mr. Cieszko served as President of Fidelity Investment Institutional Services Company (FIIS), a division of Fidelity Investments ( $450 billion AUM), where he led a restructuring resulting in record net flows, reduced redemption rates and a dramatic market share increase while delivering the second highest operating income in FIIS history.
Mr. Cieszko currently serves as board director with Intermountain Healthcare Primary Children's Hospital, and Hope & Heroes. He is a Dean's Advisory Council Member of the Villanova School of Business, where he earned a BS in Business Administration.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor ( Washington, DC )
Peter Freire is the former Chief Executive Officer of the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), representing the interests of limited partners in private capital funds across the globe. With over 450 members, the ILPA represents over $1 trillion in investable private capital. Across his tenure at the ILPA, Mr. Freire executed a mandate to grow and diversify the organization's global membership, enhance the value and scale of its research and educational offerings and expand the scope and impact of its voice in the industry.
Prior to joining the ILPA, Mr. Freire was a Managing Director and Member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum (WEF). Before joining the WEF, Mr. Freire had a successful 18-year career at the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), now part of Gartner Inc., where, as a member of the firm's executive leadership he was responsible for the global portfolio of businesses, principally the Corporate Leadership Council.
Mr. Freire began his career as a commercial banker at Bank of America and later as a consultant at Bain & Co. He earned his BSc. in Economics from the London School of Economics and his MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Fulbright Scholar.
As an aligned Senior Advisor, Mr. Freire assists Star Mountain Capital with strategic advice and thought leadership to help the firm and its portfolio investments maximize value.
30+ years of private credit, secondaries, private equity, VC, investment banking and operations experience
Job Titles:
- CA, CFA, CAIA / Director of Finance
Job Titles:
- Chairman of Project a.L.S
- Senior Advisor ( Dallas, TX )
Robert Kaplan has over 40 years of business management, monetary policy, investment banking, investment management and leadership experience. Experience includes leading the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, serving as a professor at Harvard Business School, becoming a partner at Goldman Sachs and as a published author in the area of business leadership.
Mr. Kaplan served as the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from 2015 until 2021. In this role he managed the 1,300 employees of the Dallas Fed and represented the Eleventh Federal Reserve District on the Federal Open Market Committee in the formulation of U.S. monetary policy.
During his tenure, Mr. Kaplan established the Dallas Fed as a leader in research thought-leadership. He dramatically improved community engagement with over 40 Global Perspectives events. He initiated programs to advance early childhood literacy, address the digital divide, and enhance skills training in the Eleventh District communities. He also created new initiatives at the Bank to attract, develop and retain exceptional talent.
Mr. Kaplan was previously the Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice and a Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School. During this time, he also served as Interim CEO of Harvard Management Company which manages the university's endowment.
Prior to joining Harvard, he was Vice Chairman of the Goldman Sachs Group with global responsibility for the firm's investment banking and investment management divisions. During his 23-year career at Goldman Sachs, Mr. Kaplan also ran Global Investment Banking, Asia Pacific Investment Banking, served on the firm's management committee, and ran the firm's partnership committee.
Mr. Kaplan currently serves as Chairman of Project A.L.S. and Co-Chairman of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a global venture philanthropy firm that invests in developing non-profit enterprises dedicated to addressing social issues. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the George W. Bush Institute, an Advisory Board Member of the Baker Institute, and a board member of Harvard Medical School and St. Mark's School of Texas. Mr. Kaplan is also a board member of The Commit Partnership, a collaboration of 200 organizations that works to increase student success in Dallas County. He is a Member of the Board of Directors of the SMU Tate Lecture Series and the Co-Founding Board Chair Emeritus of the TEAK Fellowship.
Previously, Mr. Kaplan was Chairman of the Investment Advisory Committee at Google, a member of the Investment Committee and Trustee of the Ford Foundation, and Co-Founder and Chairman of Indaba Capital Management. He also served on the boards of Harvard Management Company, Bed Bath & Beyond, State Street Corporation, and Heidrick & Struggles International.
Mr. Kaplan has authored the following three books:
What You Really Need to Lead: The Power of Thinking and Acting Like an Owner
What You're Really Meant To Do: A Road Map for Reaching Your Unique Potential
What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential.
He earned his bachelor's degree in business administration with highest distinction from the University of Kansas and a master's degree in business administration from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar.
Mr. Kaplan assists Star Mountain Capital with relationships, insights, and assisting with overall strategic leadership to help Star Mountain, its portfolio investments and investors maximize value in an aligned manner.
Job Titles:
- Operating Partner ( Philadelphia, PA )
- Private Equity Investor
Salem Shuchman is a veteran private equity investor with a 30+ year track record at leading private equity firms including Apax Partners. Mr. Shuchman is currently the Founder & Managing Partner at Entrepreneur Partners, a Philadelphia based private equity firm making investments in U.S. lower middle-market companies.
Prior to forming Entrepreneur Partners, Mr. Shuchman spent 12 years as a Senior Partner at Apax Partners, a private equity group managing which managed $12 billion of assets in the U.S. and Europe at that time. At Apax, he ran the leveraged transaction group, which made investments across multiple industry sectors in the U.S. and Europe. Prior to Apax, Mr. Shuchman spent nearly a decade as a Principal at Odyssey Partners, an alternative investment fund managing both public equity as well as private equity investments.
Prior to joining Odyssey Partners, Mr. Shuchman was the Founder & Executive Director of the Chester Community Improvement Project, a community-based economic development organization focused on housing and financial counseling for low-income families in Chester, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Shuchman served on the Board of Trustees and the Investment Board at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for 12 years, stepping down in June 2018. Mr. Shuchman has also served on the Board of Managers and Investment Committee for Swarthmore College for the last 18 years and effective in June 2018, he became the Chair of the Board at Swarthmore College.
10+ years of private credit and fund investment and portfolio monitoring experience
Stanley Friedman is the former Managing Director and Chief HR Officer for Fortress Investment Group. At Fortress, Stan designed and built a world-class HR function that facilitated the firm's growth from approximately 550 to 1100 employees and approximately $26 billion to $56 billion in AUM. While overseeing HR for the public entity, he was also directly involved in each of the standalone funds where he was directly involved in C-suite recruitment, reorganizations, resolving operational issues and communication strategies for portfolio companies. He also coached senior investment professionals on how to lead and manage when taking the CEO seat at portfolio companies.
Most recently, Stan was Director of HR, Facilities and Administration for King Street Capital a primarily distressed debt and credit focused hedge fund with approximately $22 billion in AUM. Prior to Fortress, Stan was Global Head of HR for Amaranth, a global multi-strategy hedge fund with almost $10 billion in AUM at its height. He facilitated the growth of Amaranth from $4 billion in AUM and 225 employees to 425 employees globally with approximately $10 billion in AUM.
Prior to Amaranth, Stan served as a senior HR generalist supporting various business lines within the Credit and Rates division of JP Morgan Chase. He joined JP Morgan, prior to the merger with Chase, from GE Capital where, over 7 years, he was a senior HR generalist at FGIC and GE Private Equity.
Star Mountain has a highly aligned full-time team of 80+ professionals, many of which have held leadership roles at some of the world's leading financial institutions.
Star Mountain is committed to the lower middle-market. Established lower middle-market business owners come to Star Mountain looking for an experienced capital partner to help them maximize their strategic growth objectives. The profile of the typical Star Mountain portfolio company is:
Star Mountain Capital, founded in 2010 by Brett Hickey, is a specialized asset management firm focused exclusively on the large and fragmented U.S. lower middle-market. Backed by some of the world's most sophisticated institutional and high-net-worth investors, Star Mountain has developed a unique and proprietary platform to provide investors with highly diversified access to the attractive risk-reward opportunities available from established businesses that are not large enough to access the more efficient U.S. capital markets.
Star Mountain has a specialized platform, with the option for investors to access low-cost, fixed-rate U.S. government leverage through the SBIC program.
With 65+ full-time team members and over 40+ strategic operating partners and senior advisors, Star Mountain has one of the deepest benches of specialized investment professionals focused exclusively on the lower middle-market. Star Mountain's team combines the best practices gained from leading large institutional investment firms together with the experience of building and managing small business investment platforms.
Star Mountain's unique platform enjoys local relationships across the U.S. to help source, analyze, and manage high quality lower middle-market investments in an efficient, institutional manner.
Star Mountain's fundamental beliefs include:
Building long-term, trusted relationships. Many of Star Mountain's investors are people who have worked with and known the team for decades.
Providing a high degree of transparency and actively communicating with investors.
Being highly aligned with meaningful personal capital invested alongside investors and committed to achieving attractive investment returns.
Building a strong culture and brand that attracts top quality employees, investors and business partners to generate superior long-term, sustainable results.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director / Senior Associate, Newbury Partners Secondaries Investment Firm ( $5bn AUM )
Job Titles:
- Chief Credit Officer
- Managing Director
30+ years of leveraged finance experience, underwriting over $50bn in event-driven financings
Job Titles:
- Employees
- Managing Director of Operations
Managing Director of Operations, Siguler Guff & Co. ($15B+ AUM alternative investment firm with 150 employees in 8 countries)
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor ( New York NY )
Stephen Fromm has over 25 years of experience as an investment banker. He has focused since 1990 on the financial services sector and has worked closely with many U.S. and global insurance companies on a wide variety of M&A, financing and general strategic matters.
Mr. Fromm was most recently the Vice Chairman of TigerRisk Capital Markets & Advisory, a leading risk, capital and strategic advisor to the global insurance and reinsurance industries. Prior to TigerRisk, Mr. Fromm was Vice Chairman of the Financial Institutions Group and previously Head of Americas Insurance at Deutsche Bank. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank in 2009 Steve was at Citigroup as Head of North American Insurance. He also spent over ten years at Morgan Stanley in the Financial Institutions Group, including as Head of Insurance M&A. He began his Investment Banking career in the mid-80s at First Boston Corp in the M&A Group and was subsequently at Wasserstein Perella & Co.
Mr. Fromm was in the Fisher Program in Management & Technology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a BS in Electrical Engineering summa cum laude from the Moore School and a BS in Economics summa cum laude from the Wharton School. He received an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor ( New York, NY )
Stephen Dondero is an investment professional with over 20 years of experience in private equity, capital markets and early-stage investing. Mr. Dondero was previously a Partner and Investment Advisory Committee member at Aegis Capital Group LLC. He has been a private venture capital investor and executed numerous direct venture investments across industries including technology, media and entertainment, software and healthcare. In addition to his investment experience, Mr. Dondero has advised companies on capital markets trends and opportunities as well as merger and acquisition activities. He has given presentations at industry events and published reports on a wide array of sectors and companies.
Mr. Dondero has raised over $10 billion for companies in the high yield market, over $500 million in the private placement market and negotiated and closed over $5 billion in the bank market. Most recently, Mr. Dondero was the capital markets expert for Bank of Montreal (BMO) Capital Markets' leveraged finance group providing corporate clients with capital raising and structuring advice. Formerly, Mr. Dondero was the Head of high yield and distressed research at BMO (a Canadian-based bank with nearly $400 billion in assets).
Prior to BMO, Mr. Dondero was with the distressed and high yield research departments at PaineWebber and Schroder Wertheim. He also worked in Barclay's private placement group and Chase Bank's middle market corporate finance group.
Mr. Dondero holds an MBA in finance and international business from Fordham University and a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. In addition to a Series 7 and 63, he is also registered with the FINRA as a Supervisory Analyst and is a member of the Turnaround Management Association.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor ( Philadelphia, PA )
- Senior Advisor With Star Mountain Capital
Steve DeAngelis has over 30 years of dynamic business building, management and leadership experience from global investment firms. Experience includes founding and building a technology-based wealth management support platform to over $100 Billion in assts and selling to PFPC Worldwide (a division of PNC Financial), Managing Director and Head of U.S. Advisor Solutions Group at Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Executive Vice President, Head of Distribution at FS Investments and President of FS Investment Solutions.
In addition to being an investor and aligned Senior Advisor with Star Mountain Capital, Mr. DeAngelis is currently on faculty at Villanova University School of Business as an Executive in Residence, where he developed and teaches students how to communicate with more impact in the professional world. Mr. DeAngelis also serves on multiple boards of privately held companies, and is founder of Auctoritas Executive Consulting where he provides consulting services for individuals and businesses committed to strategic growth through efficient execution, accountability and executive effectiveness.
Mr. DeAngelis most recently served as Chief Revenue Officer at Orion Advisor Solutions, an industry leading financial technology firm where he served on the firm's Executive Committee and was responsible for all sales and revenue generation activities.
Prior to Orion, Mr. DeAngelis was Executive Vice President and Head of Distribution at FS Investments. Mr. DeAngelis served on the firm's Executive Committee and as President of FS Investment Solutions, FS Investments' wholly owned broker-dealer subsidiary. FS Investments is a strategic distribution partner for leading asset managers including Blackstone and KKR. Mr. DeAngelis led the firm's evolution into a multi-product, multi-channel sales organization, including its entry into the RIA, wirehouse and regional broker-dealer markets.
Before FS Investments, Mr. DeAngelis spent nine years at Goldman Sachs Asset Management ("GSAM"). As Managing Director, Head of U.S. Advisor Solutions Group, he led distribution of all products and services to registered investment advisors, regional and national wirehouses, and independent broker-dealers. He was also responsible for managing home office relationships, on both the distribution and platform research sides. GSAM demonstrated significant growth in its Intermediary distribution business under Mr. DeAngelis' leadership, and expanded its product lineup to include alternative investments, structured products and ETFs.
Prior to Goldman Sachs, he co-founded and served as President of ADVISORport, Inc., the industry's first web-based platform for delivering customized managed account services to broker-dealers, banks and third-party RIAs. During Mr. DeAngelis' eight years leading ADVISORport, the platform grew to over $100 Billion in assets and served the advisory business of financial service leaders such as JP Morgan, Charles Schwab and MetLife. ADVISORport successfully sold to PFPC Worldwide, a division of PNC Financial, in 2003.
Philanthropically, Mr. DeAngelis serves on the board of Philadelphia Financial Scholars, board of Trustees of Freire Charter Schools, and Investment Committee member of the Brothers of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine.
Mr. DeAngelis has an M.B.A. from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and a Bachelor of Science from Villanova University.
Job Titles:
- Corporate Advisor
- Healthcare & Consumer Advisor ( Sarasota, FL )
- Healthcare and Consumer Industry Advisor to Star Mountain
Susan S. Kilsby is an experienced corporate advisor and operator who currently serves and has previously served on the Board of Directors of some of the world's largest consumer and healthcare corporations. She is currently the Senior Independent Director and Remuneration Committee Chairman at Diageo. She is also a Non-Executive director of BHP and its Remuneration Committee Chairman, and of Fortune Brands Home and Security and of Unilever.
Mrs. Kilsby was until 2019 the Chairman of Shire, a global publicly traded pharmaceutical company with a market capitalization of approximately $45 billion and nearly 24,000 full-time employees prior to its sale to Takeda. She was also a non-executive director of Goldman Sachs International, BBA Aviation where she chaired the Remuneration Committee, Coca-Cola HBC AG, Keurig Green Mountain where she chaired the Audit Committee, and L'Occitane SA where she chaired the Remuneration Committee.
Mrs. Kilsby had a long and distinguished career at Credit Suisse where she worked with Star Mountain's Chairman, Brian Finn (former Co-President of Credit Suisse First Boston), including as Head of the Global Consumer Products Group and Chairman of Mergers & Acquisitions for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) within the Investment Banking division. She also served as a Senior Advisor to the firm.
She has been recognized by both Forbes.com and Financial News as one of the Top Ten Women in Finance and recognized as a leader multiple times by Financial News. From 2010 to 2013 she was Chairman of the international region of C200, an organization composed of leading women in business globally, and was a founding member of the Competitor Diversity Forum in London. Mrs. Kilsby is a Senior Visiting Fellow of Cass Business School in London and Chairman of the M&A Research Centre at Cass. She is a member of Wellesley College's Business Leadership Council and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Gordon A Rich Foundation as well as the Advisory Board of the Diligent Institute.
Mrs. Kilsby holds a Doctor of Science (honoris causa) from The City University London, an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management and a B.A. from Wellesley College.
In her role as a Healthcare and Consumer Industry Advisor to Star Mountain, Mrs. Kilsby provides knowledge and insights to assist the team with industry research & analysis and assists its consumer and healthcare portfolio companies in maximizing their value.
Job Titles:
- Director of Talent & Human Resources
Talent Acquisition Lead, Five Rings (technology-driven quantitative investment firm competing with firms such as Citadel and Two Sigma)
Job Titles:
- General Counsel
- Senior Advisor ( Greenwich, CT )
T. J. Della Pietra has 35+ years of leadership, strategic, investment and governance experience in the financial industry, including senior roles at Citigroup (NYSE: C) and J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM) in New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Mr. Della Pietra held several senior operating roles at Citigroup, with responsibility for strategy, profit & loss, balance sheet, risk management, stakeholder relationships and people for complex businesses which in many cases involved significant transformations.
Most recently he was Global Head of Citi Holdings, where he led a significant reduction in the size and complexity of the business unit responsible for managing Citigroup's non-core consumer and institutional businesses and assets in the U.S. and overseas.
Prior to this role, he served as CEO for Citigroup Japan based in Tokyo where he led the successful divestiture of Citi's local consumer businesses and the multi-year restructuring of the local operating platform for Citi's institutional business. Prior to his CEO promotion, he was the COO for Citibank Japan Ltd., a locally incorporated bank subsidiary with significant corporate and consumer banking businesses, $45 billion of assets, 32 consumer branches and 2,000+ staff, and as Chief Investment Officer for Citi Japan, responsible for Citi's local principal investment, alternative investment and asset management businesses.
Mr. Della Pietra also served in divisional general counsel roles at both Citigroup and J.P. Morgan, where he had extensive experience handling strategic, regulatory, compliance, governance, litigation and investigation matters and managing legal and compliance teams. While at Citigroup, Mr. Della Pietra served as country general counsel for Citigroup in Japan, where he was a key part of the management team responsible for Citigroup's acquisition of Nikko Cordial Securities in 2007-2008, and later he served as regional general counsel for Citigroup in Asia Pacific, where he managed a legal team of 150 lawyers in 14 countries.
While at J.P. Morgan, Mr. Della Pietra served as regional general counsel for J.P. Morgan in Asia Pacific, where he supported the firm's rapid expansion in the mid-1990's, and later he served as global general counsel for J.P. Morgan's asset management division, where he supported the firm's investment management, funds and private banking businesses.
Mr. Della Pietra began his legal career at Davis Polk & Wardwell, where his practice focused on banking and finance, capital markets, funds and investment management, bankruptcies and restructurings, and corporate governance.
Mr. Della Pietra holds a J.D. degree from the University of Virginia and a B.S. degree in Economics (summa cum laude) from Boston College. He is admitted to the bar in New York and Washington, D.C.
As an aligned Senior Advisor, Mr. Della Pietra assists Star Mountain Capital with developing and implementing best practices across a wide range of activities to help maximize and protect value for all stakeholders.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor ( New York, NY )
Thomas ("Tom") Jones is a distinguished professional with over 30 years of experience in leveraged finance, investment banking, business operations and workouts / restructuring. He is currently a Managing Director at leading restructuring and due diligence advisory firm, Alvarez & Marsal (A&M). Highlights of his career at A&M include leading the liquidation of Lehman Brothers' $14.5 billion portfolio in Asia. Prior to A&M, his distinguished career at JP Morgan includes Head of Corporate Lending in the U.S., a member of the Credit Policy Committee and Head of four industry groups within Mergers & Acquisitions.
As a strategic personal investor and Senior Advisor, Mr. Jones assists Star Mountain and its portfolio companies with advice and relationships to help build and protect value. He also further strengthens Star Mountain's existing and valued relationship with A&M.
Mr. Jones has had a distinguished 30-year career in investment banking. He spent 20 years at JP Morgan, where he initially specialized in leveraged lending. Mr. Jones completed the firm's first leveraged buyout (LBO) loan and private equity investment, a financing which led to the creation of JP Morgan Capital. He later became head of Corporate Lending in the U.S. and a member of the firm's Credit Policy Committee. Mr. Jones then joined the M&A Department and became head of four industry groups - telecom, media, high-tech, and aerospace/defense, with responsibility for both investment banking and M&A. He later worked at both Salomon Brothers and Credit Suisse First Boston, where he had senior investment banking coverage responsibilities.
Mr. Jones graduated with high honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). He started his career at Procter & Gamble and then returned to UNC to earn an M.B.A. from the Kenan-Flagler School of Business, where he later served on the Board of Visitors for fifteen years. Mr. Jones completed the Corporate Finance Management course at Harvard Business School in 1986 and later was a guest lecturer at both Harvard's Advanced Management Program and the Kenan-Flagler School of Business. Mr. Jones earned a master's degree in American Studies from Columbia University and is an instrument-rated pilot.
Mr. Jones has served on the Board of Visitors of UNC, the boards of both Outward Bound U.S.A. and New York City Outward Bound, and the board of the Gladney Center, the nation's oldest adoption agency. Mr. Jones currently serves on the board of Camplex, Inc., a private medical equipment company, and is a member of the board of The National Humanities Center.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- CEO
- Investor
- Member of the Board
CEO, Herington LLC; Investor, advisor and/or board member in multiple LMM & growth-stage companies