Sara Mathew, Former Chair & CEO of Dun & Bradstreet, joins Star Mountain Capital as Senior Advisor

Star Mountain Capital, a rapidly growing employee-owned specialized investment firm with over $4 billion AUM, focused on delivering systematic alpha and low market correlated returns from making private loans and private equity investments and purchasing secondary LP interests and assets in the large, fragmented and resource intensive lower middle-market, announced that Sara Mathew has joined as Senior Advisor.

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Star Mountain Capital, LLC (“Star Mountain”), a specialized investment manager with over $4 billion in assets under management (committed capital including debt facilities as of 12/31/2024) focused on generating defensive and premium yield and total returns from the less efficient and resource-intensive market of U.S. private small and medium-sized businesses (the “lower middle-market”), is pleased to announce that Sara Mathew has joined as Senior Advisor. Ms. Mathew has 20 years of C-Suite and Board level leadership and management experience in financial services, technology, consumer products and other industries.

“We are delighted to welcome Sara as an aligned Senior Advisor, as we believe her industry knowledge as well as C-Suite and board-level leadership experience across four decades will be a tremendous asset to all of our stakeholders,” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital Founder & CEO.

“Star Mountain’s distinctive business model allows it to support the growth of established essential services-oriented businesses that play a vital role in their communities,” said Ms. Mathew. “I look forward to adding value to the firm and to its portfolio of high-quality small and medium-sized businesses.”

Ms. Mathew spent 12 years at Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE: DNB), most recently as Chair & CEO. She joined Dun & Bradstreet in 2001 as its Chief Financial Officer, after 18 years at Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG). At Dun & Bradstreet she also served as President & Chief Operating Officer from 2007 and she was named Chief Executive Officer in January 2010 and assumed the role of Chairman of the Board in July of that year, a position she held until her retirement in 2013. Ms. Mathew was also a member of Dun & Bradstreet’s Board of Directors from 2008 to 2013.

During her tenure at Dun & Bradstreet, Ms. Mathew was instrumental in transforming Dun & Bradstreet from a data company to a more innovative, digital enterprise, leveraging technological advances to expand its reach to new customers and structural changes to transform the underperforming international business. She led the re-build of Dun & Bradstreet’s core technology platform and data assets, introducing Data-as-a service (DaaS) to access new customers and accelerating Big Data Analytics to create new insights for its existing customer base.

Currently, Ms. Mathew serves on the Boards of State Street (NYSE: STT) where she is Chair of the Human Resources Committee and Dropbox (Nasdaq: DBX) where she is Chair of the Compensation & Human Resources Committee. She has previously served on the Boards of Campbell Soup (Nasdaq: CPB) where she served as Chair of the Audit Committee, Avon, Shire, XOS, Reckitt Benckiser (LON: RKT), and Freddie Mac where she served as Chair and Chair of the Audit Committee. She also spent 5 years on the Advisory Board of global insurance company, Zurich Insurance Group (SWX: ZURN).

Ms. Mathew has received numerous accolades. In 2012, she was named to FT’s 50 Women at the top; in 2013, Top value creator in the S&P 500 by Chief Executive magazine; in 2015 NACD’s Directorship 100 list; in 2017, FWA’s Woman of the Year; in 2018 Ascend/Deloitte’s Pan Asian Director of the year. In 2019, Sara was awarded NACD Director of the Year for the New Jersey Chapter in 2019 and the recipient of P&G’s John G. Smale Award for outstanding alumni in 2020.

Ms. Mathew holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics from the Women’s Christian College in Madras, India, and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Read the full press release here.

About Star Mountain

With over $4 billion in assets under management (committed capital including debt facilities as of 12/31/2024), 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). Star Mountain believes these complementary strategies provide data-enhanced, scalable, diversified, and customizable access for its institutional and qualifying 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 employee-owned and shares its profits with 100% of its U.S. full-time employees as part of its focus on maximizing value for its stakeholders and investors through alignment of interests.

Since 2010, Star Mountain has made over 300 direct investments in businesses and over 50 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 3rd straight year, Star Mountain was named one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in America.

For the fifth straight year, Star Mountain was again named one of the Best Places to Work by Crain’s New York Business as well as once again one of the 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’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/

Companies on the 2023 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2019 to 2022. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2019. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent–not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies–as of December 31, 2022. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2019 is $100,000; the minimum for 2022 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine rankings were calculated to four decimal places. https://www.inc.com/inc5000

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