Star Mountain Capital Adds Former CEO of U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp and Head of Citigroup Pension Relations, Charles Millard, as Senior Advisor

Business Wire

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.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
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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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