Star Mountain Capital, a rapidly growing employee-owned specialized investment firm with approximately $3.5 billion AUM, focused on delivering systematic alpha and low market correlated returns from high yielding private loans with equity upside in the lower middle-market, announced that Steve DeAngelis has joined as Senior Advisor.

New York – (BUSINESS WIRE) – Star Mountain Capital, LLC (“Star Mountain”), a specialized investment manager with approximately $3.5 billion in assets under management (committed capital including debt facilities as of 9/30/2023) focused on generating premium returns from the less efficient and labor-intensive market of U.S. private small and medium-sized businesses (the “lower middle-market”), is pleased to announce that Steve DeAngelis has joined as Senior Advisor.

Steve DeAngelis has over 30 years of dynamic business building, management and leadership experience from global investment firms. His experience includes founding and building a technology-based wealth management platform to over $100 billion in assts and selling to PFPC Worldwide (a division of PNC Financial, a top 10 U.S. bank by assets), 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.

“We are committed to bringing value to as many RIA, wealth management, family office and qualified individual investors as possible, allowing them to access the higher return, defensive and low market correlated potential returns alongside our institutional investors and are excited to have Steve assist with his best practices,” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital Founder & CEO. “Steve’s experience with alternative investment distribution, investor reporting, communications and talent management is a great addition for all our stakeholders including continuing to provide differentiated capabilities and reliable capital for the high-quality businesses we invest with.”

“Star Mountain has built an impressive team and business model to unlock the opportunity in the larger and fragmented lower middle-market which I believe is a great complement to larger market private credit and secondary strategy fund managers in particular,” said Steve DeAngelis. “I appreciate the opportunity to focus time and capital on differentiated investment value propositions for financial advisors, especially at Star Mountain Capital, an organization that aligns with my values and team-oriented culture.”

In addition to being an investor and aligned Senior Advisor with Star Mountain Capital, he is currently on faculty at Villanova University School of Business as an Executive in Residence, where he develops 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 the 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.

Previously, 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.  Throughout FS Investments’ history, it has served as 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 is an 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.

Read the full press release here.

About Star Mountain

With approximately $3.5 billion in assets under management (committed capital including debt facilities as of 9/30/2023), Star Mountain takes a data-driven approach to investing into the North American lower middle-market through two complementary investment strategies: (i) direct debt and equity investing and (ii) secondaries (acquiring LP interests and direct assets and making primary LP commitments) and NAV loans to funds.  Star Mountain believes these complementary strategies provide data-enhanced, scalable, diversified, and customizable access for its institutional and high-net-worth investors to established businesses that generally have at least $15 million in annual revenues and under $50 million in EBITDA. Its investors include public pensions, private pensions, insurance companies, commercial banks, endowments, foundations, family offices and high-net-worth individuals. Star Mountain is 100% employee-owned and shares its profits with 100% of its U.S. full-time employees as part of its focus on maximizing value for its stakeholders and investors through alignment of interests.

Since 2010 through September 2023, Star Mountain has made over 200 direct investments in businesses and over 40 secondary / fund investments within its Collaborative Ecosystem®, focused on the North American lower middle-market. One of Star Mountain’s specialties is seeking current cash income for investors that is materially above the typical yields found in the public markets, often accompanied with potential long-term capital gains equity returns and low correlation to public markets through its distinctive origination, underwriting and value-added investment capabilities.

Star Mountain was recently named one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in America.

For the fourth straight year, Star Mountain was again named one of the 2022 Best Places to Work by Crain’s New York Business as well as once again one of the 2022 Best Places to Work by Pensions & Investments.

Star Mountain believes its focus and dedication has been productive for job creation and economic development including in underserved areas and communities. Star Mountain is dedicated to this large market of underserved businesses purpose-built to address the challenges and opportunities of these companies. As part of its commitment, Star Mountain has trademarked Investing in the Growth Engine of America ®.

Star Mountain’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