NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Star Mountain Capital, LLC, a specialized investment manager with over $4 billion in assets under management focused on generating defensive and premium yield and total returns from the less efficient and resource-intensive market of U.S. private small and medium-sized businesses, is pleased to announce that Sara Mathew has joined as Senior Advisor. Ms. Mathew has 20 years of C-Suite and Board level leadership and management experience in financial services, technology, consumer products and other industries.
“We are delighted to welcome Sara as an aligned Senior Advisor, as we believe her industry knowledge as well as C-Suite and board-level leadership experience across four decades will be a tremendous asset to all of our stakeholders,” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital Founder & CEO.
“Star Mountain’s distinctive business model allows it to support the growth of established essential services-oriented businesses that play a vital role in their communities,” said Ms. Mathew. “I look forward to adding value to the firm and to its portfolio of high-quality small and medium-sized businesses.”
Ms. Mathew spent 12 years at Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE: DNB), most recently as Chair & CEO. She joined Dun & Bradstreet in 2001 as its Chief Financial Officer, after 18 years at Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG). At Dun & Bradstreet she also served as President & Chief Operating Officer from 2007 and she was named Chief Executive Officer in January 2010 and assumed the role of Chairman of the Board in July of that year, a position she held until her retirement in 2013. Ms. Mathew was also a member of Dun & Bradstreet’s Board of Directors from 2008 to 2013.
During her tenure at Dun & Bradstreet, Ms. Mathew was instrumental in transforming Dun & Bradstreet from a data company to a more innovative, digital enterprise, leveraging technological advances to expand its reach to new customers and structural changes to transform the underperforming international business. She led the re-build of Dun & Bradstreet’s core technology platform and data assets, introducing Data-as-a service (DaaS) to access new customers and accelerating Big Data Analytics to create new insights for its existing customer base.
Currently, Ms. Mathew serves on the Boards of State Street (NYSE: STT) where she is Chair of the Human Resources Committee and Dropbox (Nasdaq: DBX) where she is Chair of the Compensation & Human Resources Committee. She has previously served on the Boards of Campbell Soup (Nasdaq: CPB) where she served as Chair of the Audit Committee, Avon, Shire, XOS, Reckitt Benckiser (LON: RKT), and Freddie Mac where she served as Chair and Chair of the Audit Committee. She also spent 5 years on the Advisory Board of global insurance company, Zurich Insurance Group (SWX: ZURN).
Ms. Mathew has received numerous accolades. In 2012, she was named to FT’s 50 Women at the top; in 2013, Top value creator in the S&P 500 by Chief Executive magazine; in 2015 NACD’s Directorship 100 list; in 2017, FWA’s Woman of the Year; in 2018 Ascend/Deloitte’s Pan Asian Director of the year. In 2019, Sara was awarded NACD Director of the Year for the New Jersey Chapter in 2019 and the recipient of P&G’s John G. Smale Award for outstanding alumni in 2020.
Ms. Mathew holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics from the Women’s Christian College in Madras, India, and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.
About Star Mountain
With over $4 billion in assets under management (committed capital including debt facilities as of 12/31/2024), 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 300 direct investments in businesses and over 50 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.
