Star Mountain Capital, an employee-owned investment firm, added Michael Karangelen as managing director and a member of the firm’s executive committee and various investment committees. Karangelen’s relationship with Star Mountain’s team dates back decades, including prior collaborations at Goldman Sachs and Investindustrial.
With more than three decades of experience building and overseeing private credit and private equity platforms, Karangelen will support the continued expansion of Star Mountain’s direct lending, structured equity, private equity and secondary investment strategies. As a member of the firm’s executive and investment committees, he will contribute to firm-wide strategy, capital allocation and portfolio oversight while further strengthening the firm’s origination capabilities and underwriting discipline.
“We believe that optimizing the alpha and low market correlated return opportunities for investors in the lower middle-market requires skilled senior executives who have helped companies optimize value and worked through downturns, not just the ability to deploy capital,” Brett Hickey, founder and CEO of Star Mountain Capital, said. “Our model combines senior secured lending, structured equity participation and hands-on portfolio support to help management teams succeed while protecting investor capital. Michael’s experience building and leading private equity platforms strengthens this approach. His background enhances our ability to evaluate companies with a private equity level of rigor, whether we are acting as a lender, structured equity investor or secondary investor. This depth of perspective reinforces the potential structural advantages of our platform and our commitment to disciplined underwriting and long-term value creation.”
Karangelen said, “I’ve followed Star Mountain’s evolution closely throughout my long-standing relationship with Brett and have a deep respect for the differentiated platform, strong culture and commitment to partnership the team has built. I was drawn to Star Mountain’s distinctive approach within the lower middle-market. The firm’s ability to combine credit discipline, structured equity participation and active portfolio engagement across both direct and secondary strategies is distinct within the lower middle-market. I look forward to contributing to the continued growth of this integrated platform and supporting its long-term partnerships with investors.”
Karangelen has more than 35 years of experience across private equity, private lending, corporate finance, investment banking and board governance with leading global institutions. Over the course of his career, he has led platform acquisitions, corporate carve-outs, multi-year build-ups, operational transformations and cross-border transactions across the business services, consumer, manufacturing, retail, communications/media and financial services sectors.
Prior to joining Star Mountain, Karangelen was the co-founder and CEO of Alakai Group, a private equity firm focused on the longevity and healthspan sector. Selected members of the Alakai team and its sector expertise will integrate into Star Mountain’s broader investment platform, enhancing thematic sourcing capabilities, operating relationships and value-creation resources across the firm’s direct debt and equity investments while maintaining disciplined underwriting standards.
Prior to Alakai, Karangelen served as CEO of Investindustrial North America, where he built and led the firm’s U.S. investment business. He recruited and developed a fully integrated organization encompassing investment professionals, portfolio support, investor relations and back-office functions. He architected and executed the firm’s U.S. strategy, overseeing platform acquisitions, add-on investments and cross-border transactions. As a member of Investindustrial’s global investment committee, he participated in the oversight of approximately $11 billion of assets under management, working with investors across the U.S., Europe and Asia. He also supported Investindustrial’s European portfolio companies as the company expanded into the U.S., driving growth through add-on acquisitions, organic initiatives, strategic partnerships and the development of U.S.-based operating teams.
Prior to Investindustrial, Karangelen was a managing director at TowerBrook Capital Partners, where he focused on middle-market control and structured minority private equity investments within a global private equity platform managing approximately $9 billion of assets under management. Earlier, he was a partner at Brera Capital Partners, founded by the former president of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. He also served as a senior investor at Stolberg Partners, a lower middle-market investment firm, where he led control private equity investments and multi-year build-up strategies in founder and family-owned businesses. Across these firms, he has executed more than twenty platform investments and value-creation-driven add-on acquisitions.
Karangelen also brings substantial operating experience. He was a private equity investor supporting the formation of Ladder Capital, a private lending and finance company with approximately $1.5 billion in market capitalization, and served as its initial chief financial officer, playing a key role in establishing the company’s capital structure and financial foundation during its formative stage. He previously served as chief financial officer of GAB Robins, a business services company with approximately $500 million in annual revenues, and as head of business development at Eschelon Telecom, a communications services company. At Eschelon, he led the sourcing, execution and integration of multiple add-on acquisitions and helped create meaningful value, scaling the company into a larger communications enterprise which resulted in a successful sale to a large financial sponsor.
Earlier in his career, Karangelen was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in New York and S.G. Warburg in London, advising clients on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance transactions.
In addition to his professional career, Karangelen has been deeply involved in volunteer leadership and philanthropy. He has been an active Cornell University alumnus for more than 35 years and has served as a trustee (now emeritus) of the Student Agencies Foundation since 1988, including 12 years as its president. He founded, designed and led the capital campaign for the Cornell eLab Accelerator, supporting student entrepreneurship. He is a member of the advisory board of the Stanford Center on Longevity and was one of the initial trustees of The Bedford Playhouse, serving during the period in which the board conceived, designed, constructed and raised capital for the creation of the theater as a cultural and community institution. He has also served as a Trustee of Public Prep, a network of public charter schools.
Karangelen earned a BA in economics from Cornell University.
