Star Mountain Capital, a rapidly growing, employee-owned specialized private investment firm focused on the lower middle-market with over $3 billion AUM announced that Stephen Faughnan, former Managing Director of Operations at Siguler Guff & Company, a $15+ billion AUM multi-strategy Private Equity, Private Credit and Secondary Investments Firm and former Vice President at Goldman Sachs Asset Management has joined as Managing Director of Finance & Operations
Star Mountain Capital, LLC ("Star Mountain"), a specialized investment manager, with over $3 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 Stephen Faughnan has joined as Managing Director of Finance & Operations. A differentiating factor of Star Mountain’s investor-aligned business is that 100% of its team including Senior Advisors / Operating Partners share in the investment profits.
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“Steve brings decades of finance, operations and compliance experience from large global asset management firms like Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Siguler Guff,” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital Founder & CEO. “We are committed to continuing to invest in our best practices finance and operations function as well as bringing additional resources to our collaborative ecosystem to further support our portfolio investments.”
“Having seen hundreds of asset managers over my 20 years of alternative investments experience, I found Star Mountain’s investment strategies and culture to be differentiated leading me to want to continue my career and offer my expertise there,” said Stephen Faughnan, “The firm’s long-term commitment to team, training, infrastructure, technology and data have helped build a strong foundation for continued growth.”
Mr. Faughnan has over 20 years of finance, operations, accounting, tax and regulatory compliance experience across the financial services industry including Private Credit, Private Equity, Secondary Funds, Hedge Funds, ’40 Act Funds, Fund of Funds, and various other regulated fund structures.
Prior to joining Star Mountain, Mr. Faughnan was the Managing Director of Operations at Siguler Guff & Company, a $15+ billion AUM multi-strategy Private Equity, Private Credit and Secondary Investments Firm. In his capacity as the Managing Director of Operations, he was responsible for all daily operational functions for the firm and its related investment vehicles, including fund financing, operational due diligence, currency hedge trading, AIFMD implementation and reporting, information technology/cybersecurity, treasury, and human resources.
Previously, Mr. Faughnan spent over 12 years at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), where he was a Vice President. He held many different roles within GSAM, across finance, operations and regulatory compliance while working in the New York, Bangalore, Seoul and Tokyo offices. In these varied roles, he focused on management company reporting, fund accounting, portfolio valuations, fund operations and regulatory compliance.
Mr. Faughnan started his career as a tax consultant at Deloitte & Touche where he spent two years advising clients on their global tax planning and compliance needs.
Mr. Faughnan earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree, with a concentration in Public Accounting, from Pace University. He also earned his Master of Business Administration, with concentrations in Finance, International Finance and Global Management from The New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business.
ABOUT STAR MOUNTAIN
With over $3 billion in assets under management (as of August 31, 2022), 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 high-net-worth investors to established small and medium-sized 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 employees as part of its focus on maximizing value for its stakeholders and investors through alignment of interests.
Since 2010 through August 2022, Star Mountain has made 166 direct investments in U.S. small and medium-sized businesses and 30 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.
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 ®.
Star Mountain has a dedicated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Committee led by Anne Yang, Strategic Portfolio Manager & ESG Committee Chair, who was formerly a Managing Director & Member of Executive Office at Goldman Sachs. Star Mountain believes that ESG is aligned with financial stability and long-term shareholder value creation.
As part of its ESG program, 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/
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Contacts
John Polis – Media@StarMountainCapital.com
