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 Scott Couto
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
6/30/2024) 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 Scott Couto has
joined as Senior Advisor.
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the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240701650862/en/
Scott Couto, Star Mountain Capital Senior
Advisor (Photo: Business Wire)
Scott Couto has over 30 years of experience in the asset
management business including executive leadership, risk
management, investor reporting, investment strategy, distribution,
marketing and investment product development experience.
Mr. Couto was most recently Executive Vice President & Head
of North America at Columbia Threadneedle Investments ($650+
billion), where he was responsible for all aspects of the North
America asset management business including product development,
marketing, intermediary markets, global consultant relations,
institutional sales and relationship management. Mr. Couto served
as Chair of the North America Risk and Controls Committee and Chair
of the North America Business Management Committee, the Columbia
Threadneedle Global Executive Group, and was also a member of
Columbia Threadneedle parent, Ameriprise’s ($40+ bn market cap
NASDAQ: AMP) Executive Leadership Team.
Prior to Columbia Threadneedle investments, Mr. Couto served as
President of Fidelity Institutional Asset Management at Fidelity
Investments (~$4.9 trillion AUM), where he was responsibility for
Fidelity Investments’ U.S. Intermediary and U.S. Institutional
businesses and was responsible for $580 billion in client AUM.
“We are honored to have Scott join Star Mountain as an aligned
Senior Advisor bringing extensive strategic leadership, business
management, governance, risk management and client relations
experience,” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital Founder &
CEO. “Scott has tremendous complementary and differentiated skills
and experience that I am confident will benefit all Star Mountain
stakeholders including our team and investors.”
“I look forward to sharing my experiences and believe this is a
compelling time to look at investing in the U.S. lower
middle-market which represents nearly 50% of U.S. GDP and is now
more open to outside investors given the aging demographic business
owners willing to sell and take on outside capital,” said Scott
Couto. “I also think it is a prudent time for investors to look for
less market correlated returns as a further potential benefit to
Star Mountain’s differentiated investment platform which is
purpose-built to work with these smaller, but established private
businesses.”
Prior to Fidelity, Mr. Couto served as Chief Operating Officer
at Evergreen Investments, now part of Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC),
which had ~$250 bn of AUM and where he was responsible for
Evergreen’s U.S. Intermediary Business including mutual funds,
separately managed accounts, sub-advisory and retirement markets.
At Evergreen, Mr. Couto also served as Global Head of Product
Management & Development and was a Member of the Operating
Committee, Investment Product Committee, Investment Strategy
Committee, Risk Management Committee, Global Distribution Operating
Committee and Hedge Fund Operating Committee.
Prior to Evergreen Investments, Mr. Couto served as Senior Vice
President & Director of Investment Strategy at Liberty Funds
(now Columbia Threadneedle Investments). He began his career in
1991 as a Senior Investment Executive at Liberty Financial
Companies.
Mr. Couto has served on multiple boards including the Insured
Retirement Institute (executive committee), Posse Foundation and
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce (finance committee).
Mr. Couto received his B.S. in Finance and Investments at Babson
College and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). He holds FINRA
series 7, 63, 51, 3, and 24 licenses. Mr. Couto is a Member of
Boston Security Analysts Society and the CFA Institute.
About Star Mountain
With over $4 billion in assets under management (committed
capital including debt facilities as of 6/30/2024), 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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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240701650862/en/
John Polis – Media@StarMountainCapital.com