Star Mountain Capital, LLC (“Star Mountain”), a specialized investment manager with approximately $3.5 billion in AUM focused on investing in one of the largest and most underserved market segments in North America, established private small and medium-sized businesses (the “lower middle-market”), announced that MaryAnn Stauffer has joined as a Managing Director. She will further the firm’s client services and distribution capabilities particularly within the high-net-worth channel in addition to institutional coverage. This market segment continues to have tremendous demand for private loans, especially Star Mountain’s differentiated, private-equity style approach of helping finance acquisitions of often aging private business owners who want to sell for personal reasons while regional banks continue to have limited abilities to service these needs.
Ms. Stauffer is the second former Goldman Sachs veteran to join Star Mountain so far this year. In February, former Goldman Sachs Partner George Mattson, a longtime Star Mountain Senior Advisor, joined full-time as President. Star Mountain has continued to develop a world-class team of investment and client service professionals who are looking to invest their own capital alongside clients in a return optimizing manner. Star Mountain’s differentiated and purpose-built platform has attracted a wide range of sophisticated institutional, family office and high-net-worth investors from the U.S. and globally.
“We are delighted to welcome MaryAnn to the Star Mountain family as we continue to focus on bringing distinctive value to investors and business owners in an aligned manner through our purpose-built platform focused on the lower middle-market,” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital’s Founder and CEO. “Our mission is to provide as many investors as possible with high quality access to this segment of the private markets including through customized investment structures to help accomplish their goals which generally include capital protection, portfolio diversification, current yield and overall returns,” he added.
Ms. Stauffer will join the firm’s new Philadelphia office, which is Star Mountain’s 11th office nationwide.
“I am thrilled to join an incredibly talented team of professionals that are bringing tangible value to registered investment advisors, institutions and investors at large, as well as lower middle-market business owners,” said MaryAnn Stauffer. “Star Mountain Capital has an aligned purpose and mission of investing with and helping grow leading private businesses in North America. This is an extremely compelling value proposition for my career, personal capital and trusted relationships, who are constantly looking for reliable and differentiated investments to complement their portfolio,” she added.
Prior to joining Star Mountain, Ms. Stauffer spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where she worked with some of the nation’s leading registered investment advisors, family offices and financial advisory firms, consulting with their investment committees on the markets, portfolio construction and various investment strategies across a broad array of asset classes. In this capacity, she led teams through extensive investment due diligence and research processes, leveraging her experience and investment acumen across capital markets, including equities, debt and alternatives.
Her alternative investment experience includes private credit / private lending in drawn down funds as well as BDC structures, private equity, and secondary fund investment strategies. As part of her leadership, she was an active member of the Goldman Sachs Women’s Network, which brought together female colleagues while assisting in bringing up the next generation of female executives within the firm.
Before Goldman Sachs, Ms. Stauffer was a Vice President at J.P. Morgan Asset Management and worked for Merrill Lynch earlier in her career.
Ms. Stauffer is active in the community and philanthropically, including serving on advancement and fundraising committees for the Holy Child School at Rosemont in Pennsylvania, and previously serving on the Investment Committee for Friends of Joshua House, in Tampa, Florida.
Ms. Stauffer holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Scranton and an MBA from Fordham University. She holds Series 7, 63 and 65 securities licenses.
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