Star Mountain Capital, a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager with ~$2.5 billion AUM announced that Crandall Deery, former SBIC and BDC Investment Committee Member with $6+ Billion in over 50 completed debt and equity investments, has joined as a Managing Director.

Star Mountain Capital, LLC, a specialized investment manager, with approximately $2.5 billion in assets under management, focused exclusively on investing in established, private small and medium-sized North American businesses (lower middle-market), is pleased to announce that Crandall Deery has joined as a Managing Director. All Star Mountain full-time senior team members as well Senior Advisors / Operating Partners are aligned with Star Mountain’s investors through sharing in investment profits and through their personal capital invested. 100% of Star Mountain’s full-time team, including junior team members, shares in the investment profits alongside investors.

“Crandall brings 25 years of investment experience, including more than 15 years of directly comparable experience in the U.S. lower middle-market as an investment committee member of both an SBIC fund as well as of a BDC,” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital Founder & CEO. “Adding a 12^th full-time Managing Director extends our value-add capabilities for business owners and our investors.”

“I am thrilled to join Star Mountain’s distinctive private investments platform and look forward to helping them continue to drive compelling value for business owners and investors in this fragmented marketplace,” said Crandall Deery, “Star Mountain’s culture, including a high degree of alignment of interest as all senior team members have personal capital invested, as well as the firm’s long-term commitment to its infrastructure, technology, data, and education makes for a compelling recipe of continued success for our team and investors alike.”

Mr. Deery has a broad range of investment experience having trained at and worked with some of the leading global private credit investment firms. Most recently he was approved and licensed by the U.S. Government Small Business Administration (SBA) managed Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program where he was a Partner and Investment Committee member of an SBIC fund focused on providing strategic debt and equity capital to growing U.S.-based private businesses. Prior to that he was an Investment Committee Member for a Business Development Company (BDC) whose leadership included a former Partner & Chief Investment Officer of Credit Alternatives and former Head of Global Credit at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM).

Mr. Deery began his private credit investing career at GE Antares Capital (today a $50+ billion private credit manager owned by Canada’s largest pension plan, CPPIB with ~$500 billion of assets). Mr. Deery left with some colleagues from GE to develop a private lending business at Jeffries in partnership with MassMutual Insurance Company.

Mr. Deery’s broad context of macro and micro experience includes equity research at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., an investment research and institutional asset management company now part of the ~$700 billion AUM global asset management firm AllianceBernstein. He started his career in financial/accounting due diligence at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in the 1990s where he was promoted to a team lead.

Mr. Deery is a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a major in Economics and minor in Business Administration. He received an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business with concentrations in Finance and Business Law where he was recognized as a Stern Scholar.

Since 2010 through 2021, Star Mountain has made over 140 direct investments in U.S. small and medium-sized businesses and over 25 secondary / fund investments within its Collaborative Ecosystem®, exclusively focused on the North American lower middle-market. One of Star Mountain’s specialties is seeking current cash income and yield for investors that is materially above the typical yields found in the public markets through its distinctive origination, underwriting and value-added lending capabilities.

For the third straight year, Star Mountain was again named one of the 2021 Best Places to Work by Crain’s New York Business as well as once again one of the 2021 Best Places to Work by Pensions & Investments.

Read the full press release on BusinessWire.

ABOUT STAR MOUNTAIN

With ~$2.5 billion in assets under management (as of December 31, 2021), 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). 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. Star Mountain’s 100% employee-owned team and Collaborative Ecosystem ® provides distinctive value to lower middle-market businesses as a flexible capital solution partner.

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 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://www.bestplacestoworkmm.com/eligibility-criteria