Star Mountain Capital has named asset management veteran Scott Couto as senior adviser.
The US alternative investment manager said that Couto (pictured) has over 30 years of experience in the industry.
He most recently held the role of executive vice president and head of North America at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, where he oversaw more than $650bn (£510bn) of assets.
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Prior to that, he served as president of Fidelity Investments’ US intermediary and institutional businesses and was responsible for $580bn of client assets under management.
“We are honoured to have Scott join Star Mountain as an aligned senior adviser bringing extensive strategic leadership, business management, governance, risk management and client relations experience,” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital founder and chief executive. “Scott has tremendous complementary and differentiated skills and experience that I am confident will benefit all Star Mountain stakeholders including our team and investors.”
Couto said: “I look forward to sharing my experiences and believe this is a compelling time to look at investing in the US lower middle-market which represents nearly 50 per cent of US GDP and is now more open to outside investors given the aging demographic business owners willing to sell and take on outside capital.
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“I also think it is a prudent time for investors to look for less market correlated returns as a further potential benefit to Star Mountain’s differentiated investment platform which is purpose-built to work with these smaller, but established private businesses.”
Star Mountain Capital has more than $4bn in assets under management and focuses on investing into the North American lower middle market through direct debt and equity investment and secondaries.
It has been expanding its advisory team of late, having named pensions expert Charles Millard as a senior adviser last week.
