NEW YORK, August 26 — Star Mountain Capital, LLC (“Star Mountain”), one of the largest dedicated lower middle-market teams in the country with approximately $5 billion in assets under management (“AUM”), is pleased to announce that Adam Fitzner has joined the firm as a Managing Director and Strategic Portfolio Partner. Mr. Fitzner will support Star Mountain’s continued growth by leveraging his expertise in private equity investing and operational value creation to strengthen and optimize portfolio company performance.
Mr. Fitzner brings more than 30 years of experience as a private equity investor, board member and turnaround and restructuring advisor, working with more than 60 businesses across growth, transformation and complex situations. He has created many successful companies by building culture, developing high-performance teams, creating clear and aligned strategic plans and driving accountability. His experience spans a vast range of markets including industrial, business services, consumer, financial and technology-enabled companies, with particular expertise in founder, entrepreneur and family-owned lower middle-market companies and Qualified Small Business Stock eligible investments (IRC section 1202). Over the course of his career, he has successfully raised and / or invested over $3 billion of new capital and restructured over $5 billion of debt.
Prior to joining Star Mountain, Mr. Fitzner spent 14 years at Hamilton Robinson Capital Partners and Corinthian Capital Group, two lower middle-market private equity firms, where he sourced, executed and managed control private equity investments including identifying and executing strategic acquisitions. In these roles, he served as an investment committee member, led portfolio company boards and was instrumental in developing and implementing a standardized value-creation approach focused on culture and leadership, strategic planning, commercial growth, operational excellence, digital transformation, financial management and acquisition integration.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Fitzner spent 12 years advising companies, boards, private equity sponsors and creditors on operational turnarounds, financial restructurings, financings and mergers and acquisitions at Evercore (NYSE: EVR), Miller Buckfire (now a part of Stifel Financial, NYSE; SF), Houlihan Lokey (NYSE: HLI) and Phoenix Management (now a part of JS Held). Across these roles, he helped management teams navigate complex situations, improve liquidity and operating performance and execute recapitalizations, sales and restructurings.
“Adam’s combination of private equity investing experience and deep operational expertise in the lower middle-market makes him an exceptional addition to our team,” said Brett Hickey, Founder and CEO of Star Mountain Capital. “His track record of building high-performance teams, executing value-creation plans and navigating complex business situations aligns directly with our mission of being a true value-add partner to the entrepreneurs and management teams we back.”
“Star Mountain’s focus on culture and people and its differentiated approach to the lower middle-market, including its advanced use of technology, breadth of lower middle-market solutions (debt, equity, secondaries, NAV loans and fund solutions) and its deep commitment to partnering with small businesses, represents exactly the kind of platform I have been interested in joining,” said Mr. Fitzner. “I look forward to helping our portfolio companies reach their full potential and optimizing value for our management team partners and investors.”
Mr. Fitzner earned a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, with dual majors in Finance and Marketing from Lehigh University where he was a Division I swimmer, team captain and recipient of the Coaches Award for team leadership. He also earned an MBA, cum laude, from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, where he was a Park Leadership Fellow. While at Cornell, he co-founded SightSpeed, a peer-to-peer videoconferencing business that was subsequently acquired by Logitech (NASDAQ: LOGI).