Star Mountain Capital, a rapidly growing employee-owned
specialized investment firm with over $4.0 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 larger, fragmented and
resources intensive lower middle-market, announced that Charles
Millard has joined as Senior Advisor.
Star Mountain Capital, LLC ("Star Mountain"), a specialized
investment manager with over $4.0 billion in assets under
management (committed capital including debt facilities as of
5/31/2024) focused on generating defensive and premium yield and
total returns from the less efficient and resources-intensive
market of U.S. private small and medium-sized businesses (the
“lower middle-market”), is pleased to announce that Charles Millard
has joined as Senior Advisor.
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the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240626029162/en/
Charles Millard, Star Mountain Capital
Senior Advisor (Photo: Business Wire)
Charles Millard has 30+ years of economic policy, investment
advisory and wealth management experience and is a prominent
speaker and writer within the pension and retirement investment
plan space.
Mr. Millard is a former Director of the United States Pension
Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) with $100 billion in assets,
which insures the pensions of over 40 million Americans. He was
appointed by President George W. Bush and was the first Director of
the PBGC to be confirmed by the United States Senate. As Director,
Mr. Millard served as the Chief Executive Officer of the PBGC and
carried the rank of Under Secretary.
Mr. Millard was also a Managing Director and Head of Pension
Relations at Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), a $2 trillion in assets
global financial institution where he oversaw relationships with
global pension investors. During his time with Citigroup, he also
taught at the Yale School of Management on pensions and public
policy and has served the World Economic Forum as a member of its
Retirement Investment Systems Reform Project.
“We’re excited to have his insights and knowledge to help us
continue to grow our business and add as much value as possible to
all stakeholders,” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital Founder
& CEO. “Charles will help us ensure we provide best in class
communications and reporting for investors to also help showcase
the value to local communities, innovation and job creation as
additional benefits to our differentiated returns.”
“Diversification is particularly important with the current high
valuations across many sectors,” said Charles Millard. “Star
Mountain has a compelling business model, purpose-built to execute
against the supply and demand imbalances and barriers to entry
inherent with lending to and investing in growing U.S. small and
medium-sized businesses which are an important part of the economy
representing an estimated 44% of U.S. GDP.”
Prior to his appointment to the PBGC in 2007, Mr. Millard had a
varied career in both private and public life, including service as
a Managing Director with both Lehman Brothers and Prudential
Securities. Immediately before joining the PBGC, Mr. Millard was a
Managing Director at Broadway Partners, a national real estate
investment and management firm in New York. He also served as
President of BP Direct Securities, a broker-dealer associated with
Broadway Partners, where he helped raise over one billion dollars
for Broadway’s discretionary private equity real estate funds.
Mr. Millard also served as President of the New York City
Economic Development Corp. (EDC) and Chairman of the New York City
Industrial Development Agency in the administration of Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani. In that role he oversaw large and significant
parts of New York City infrastructure including the redevelopment
of Times Square and 42nd Street. Prior to that role, he was twice
elected to the New York City Council from the East Side of
Manhattan.
Since leaving Citigroup, he has served as a Senior Advisor or
Consultant for AQR Capital Management, McKinsey, Syntax Data and
ARS Financial. He is also a Trustee Director of Independent
Governance Group (a U.K. pension services firm) and member of the
Board of Directors of Mt. Logan Re and of 777 Re, both
Bermuda-based reinsurance companies.
Mr. Millard holds a Bachelor of Arts Honors Degree, cum laude
and Phi Beta Kappa, from Holy Cross College, where he received the
Presidential Service Award, and a J.D. from Columbia Law School,
where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
About Star Mountain
With over $4 billion in assets under management (committed
capital including debt facilities as of 5/31/2024), 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 250 direct investments
in businesses and over 45 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 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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John Polis – Media@StarMountainCapital.com