Star Mountain Capital, a growing, employee-owned investment firm with over $4 billion in assets under management (AUM), announced that Jared Cohen has joined the firm as a Managing Director on the Investment Team. Cohen will primarily focus on sourcing, analyzing and managing private market investments on the West Coast of the U.S. where he has comprehensive industry expertise.
Cohen has over 25 years of experience in private credit, special situations, private equity and secondaries investing. He has also held operating roles in lower middle-market businesses and served as a Director on both public and private company boards.
“Jared is a proven and dynamic investment professional, who has invested across market cycles over many industries and has hands on operating experience as well, which we believe helps optimize returns,” said Brett Hickey, Founder & CEO of Star Mountain. “His experience from leading global investment firms paired with his values and work ethic are highly aligned with ours and we believe Jared will be a great addition to our team as we deepen our capabilities and local market advantages across the U.S.”
“During my nearly ten years at Fortress on the Investment Committee within the Credit Group, I was fortunate to have worked with Jared and am confident in his ability to work well alongside our team and stakeholders to add value to the companies we invest with and our investors alike,” said Curtis Glovier, Managing Director and Strategic Portfolio Officer of Star Mountain.
Serving as a Partner and Managing Director in the Credit Funds at Fortress Investment Group, Cohen has invested across multiple industries and throughout various credit cycles over the course of a decade. In addition to originating, underwriting and managing investments, he played leadership and steering committee roles in multiple restructurings and has extensive expertise in workouts, restructurings and insolvency proceedings.
Cohen’s private equity and operational experience includes leading a successful industry consolidation in the express car wash sector, where his team acquired over 20 locations before successfully selling the business to a Goldman Sachs entity. During this investment, he played an active operating role as Head of Finance & Operations, overseeing key financial and operational strategies.
Before joining Fortress, Cohen was a Vice President at Merrill Lynch, where he focused on principal investing, including direct credit originations and special situations investing. He began his career as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley, specializing in leverage finance capital markets in New York City.
“Having invested across large and small enterprises over my career, I believe Star Mountain’s focus on the fragmented lower middle-market with an acute focus on generating alpha and low market correlated returns for investors is very compelling,” said Cohen. “Star Mountain’s long-term focus with an emphasis on team, technology and infrastructure has, I believe, allowed it to become a highly differentiated and valuable investment firm that I am proud to now be a part of.”
Cohen serves on the Board of Big Heart Ranch, a non-profit wellness center and animal sanctuary. He graduated with honors from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a major in economics and completed the General Course program at the London School of Economics (LSE), where he focused on economics, global financial markets, and statistics. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder and a member of both the CFA Institute and CFA Society Los Angeles.