Star Mountain Capital Adds Former Head of BlackRock’s $1 Trillion U.S. Wealth Business, Frank Porcelli, as Senior Advisor

Star Mountain Capital, LLC (“Star Mountain”), a rapidly growing specialized private credit and secondaries investment firm targeting systematic alpha and low market correlated returns for its global institutional and high-net-worth investors is pleased to announce that Frank Porcelli has joined as Senior Advisor. Star Mountain has one of the largest teams focused on investing in established, profitable, small and medium-sized private U.S. businesses (the “lower middle-market”) which represents approximately 50% of U.S. GDP.

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Star Mountain adds new Senior Advisor, Frank Porcelli (Photo: Business Wire)

Frank Porcelli has had a distinguished 30+ year career in asset management and wealth management. While he was at BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), one of the world’s largest asset management firms at nearly $10 trillion of assets under management, he headed its U.S. Wealth Business and was a member of their Operating Committee and helped that division grow assets under management from $250 billion to $1 trillion.

Mr. Porcelli retired from BlackRock after 14 years, where he served as a member of the firm’s Operating Committee and head of the firm’s US wealth advisory business. As the head of US Wealth Advisory, he had been responsible for integrating iShares with active coverage, creating the independent channel and shifting BlackRock’s strategic focus from product sales to portfolio construction.

“We are honored to have Frank join Star Mountain as an aligned Senior Advisor bringing extensive strategic leadership, business management and client service experience,” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital Founder & CEO. “His experience with helping build a strong client service organization at BlackRock will help us continue to provide our investors with the best service possible in accessing the benefits of the less efficient and large U.S. lower middle-market.”

“Having experienced the results for my own portfolio as an investor with Star Mountain, I am thrilled to be joining as a Senior Advisor,” said Frank Porcelli. “I believe many institutional and high-net-worth investors can benefit from the higher returns and low market correlation that Star Mountain targets through its distinctive platform in this large and inefficient U.S. lower middle-market.”

Prior to joining BlackRock, Mr. Porcelli served as the managing director of institutional sales and consultant relations at Putnam Investments for six years and director of corporate asset management services at Goldman Sachs for three years. Previously, he held various roles at Smith Barney, including director of retirement services, head of unit investment trusts, chief operating officer of Smith Barney Mutual Funds and manager of strategic planning.

Mr. Porcelli is currently Managing Partner at Convergency Partners, a unique advisory and consulting business focused on the formulation and execution of growth strategies for asset management, wealth management and financial technology clients.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Pace University and is on the Board of Trustees of Partnership Schools, a non-profit supporting elementary school education in underserved communities.

About Star Mountain

With ~$4 billion in assets under management (committed capital including debt facilities as of 2/29/2024), 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 100% 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 200 direct investments in businesses and over 40 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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