Star Mountain names leveraged loan expert Paras as managing director

By Sarah Lizee

Olympia, Wash., March 27 – Star Mountain Capital, LLC said Stephen Paras has transitioned from a Star Mountain operating partner to a fulltime managing director and investment committee member.

Paras is a leveraged finance and investment professional with over 30 years of experience. He has successfully structured and underwritten event-driven debt financings totaling over $50 billion across a variety of industries.

He has held leadership roles as managing director and head of U.S. leveraged loan capital markets at Merrill Lynch in New York as well as managing director and head of EMEA leveraged loan capital markets at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London.

His leadership experience included being a senior member of Merrill Lynch’s and Bank of America’s leveraged finance commitment committee responsible for leveraged loan underwriting and principal commitments of leveraged finance capital.

Paras was a member of Merrill Lynch’s mezzanine investment committee responsible for reviewing investment decisions and managing portfolio risk of a Merrill Lynch-sponsored mezzanine debt fund. He was also a member of Merrill Lynch’s managing director nomination committee and Merrill Lynch’s leveraged finance operating committee.

Prior to his 16-year career at Bank of America and predecessor firm Merrill Lynch, Paras spent six years at Chemical Bank’s (JP Morgan Chase) leveraged buyout and syndicated finance groups. He began his banking career at Chase Manhattan Bank and Citibank.

At both Merrill Lynch and Chemical Bank, Paras worked closely with Star Mountain partner and investment committee member Christopher Birosak, who later went on to be a senior partner in Merrill Lynch’s $6 billion direct private equity investment business which included board leadership positions such as chairman of the audit committee of HCA, Inc.

“Steve’s leadership experience, three decades of market knowledge and investment experience has proven to be of considerable value during his time as a personal investor and operating partner with Star Mountain,” Birosak said in the release.

“We are excited to now have him as a full-time partner with us to further the value our distinctive platform brings to investors and established small and medium-sized businesses.”

Star Mountain Capital is a New York-based specialized asset management firm focused on investing in the U.S. lower middle-market.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.