Donald Raymond, Former Chief Investment Strategist at Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), Joins Star Mountain Capital as Senior Advisor

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 5, 2026--

Star Mountain Capital, LLC ("Star Mountain"), a rapidly growing, employee-owned investment firm with approximately $4.5 billion in assets under management (“AUM”), is pleased to announce that Donald Raymond has joined the firm as a Senior Advisor. Dr. Raymond will add value to Star Mountain by supporting investment and portfolio construction efforts, contributing to firmwide thought leadership through his rigorous, research-driven approach and leveraging his senior leadership experience at Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments).

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“Don’s leadership at some of the world’s largest asset owners, combined with his deep expertise in portfolio construction and institutional governance, brings a differentiated and highly valuable perspective to Star Mountain,” said Brett Hickey, Founder and CEO of Star Mountain Capital. “We are excited to have him as an aligned Senior Advisor.”

“Star Mountain’s specialized focus on the lower middle-market has the potential to have a positive impact on many investment portfolios,” said Dr. Raymond. “The quality of the team, their disciplined approach to investing and their long-term alignment with investors match the principles that have guided my work across global institutional portfolios.”

Dr. Raymond has over 30 years of global investment experience across public and private markets, portfolio construction and institutional governance, having held senior leadership roles at some of the world’s largest asset owners and financial institutions.

Dr. Raymond previously served as Chief Investment Strategist at QIA and CPP Investments, both among the top 15 asset owners globally. At CPP Investments, he was the first Chief Investment Strategist. He helped architect CPP Investments’ innovative Total Portfolio Approach and played a key role in the development of the United Nations’ Principles of Responsible Investing (UNPRI) and CPP Investments’ early adoption in 2005. He also oversaw the growth of the public markets portfolio from $11 billion in passively managed funds to $100 billion in assets actively managed by more than 130 employees across five distinct active investment strategies.

Before CPP Investments, Dr. Raymond worked at Goldman Sachs in Toronto as a top ranked fixed income strategist and later in New York in global equity and fixed income portfolio management. Earlier in his career, he worked for Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) in China and trained as a pilot in the Canadian military.

Dr. Raymond has also served as Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Alignvest Management Corporation, an alternative investment management firm focused on private equity and alternative investments. He has held a range of senior governance roles, including Chair of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Investment Committee of Queen’s University Endowment, and as a Board Director and Chair of the Investment Committee of Great West LifeCo (TSX: GWO), one of Canada’s leading global insurance companies with over $600 bn AUM.

He advises the central banks of Singapore and Thailand and serves as an Adjunct Professor of Finance at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and as Chair Emeritus of the International Centre for Pension Management.

Dr. Raymond holds a B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University and is a CFA charterholder.

About Star Mountain Capital

With ~$4.5 billion in AUM (committed capital including debt facilities as of 1/31/2026), Star Mountain specializes in providing scalable and data-driven investment solutions across two core strategies:

Star Mountain’s investors include public and private pensions, insurance companies, commercial banks, endowments, foundations, family offices and high-net-worth individuals. Employee-owned and sharing profits with 100% of its U.S. full-time employees, the firm prioritizes alignment of interests to maximize value for stakeholders.

Since 2010, Star Mountain has completed over 100 direct platform investments and 50 secondary/fund investments in the North American lower middle-market. The firm has been recognized as one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies and a Best Place to Work by Crain’s New York Business and Pensions & Investments.

For more information, visit www.starmountaincapital.com.

Legal Disclaimer:

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase interests in any investment product. Awards and recognitions by third-party rating agencies, companies or publications should not be interpreted as a guarantee of future results or performance. They should not be considered as an endorsement, recommendation or referral of Star Mountain Capital or its representatives by any client or third party. Rankings published by media and industry organizations are based on information provided by the recognized advisor. Additionally, readers should understand that past performance is not indicative of future results. Award descriptions and selection methodologies may vary.

Awards and Recognition Disclosure:

Star Mountain Capital's awards and recognitions are based on third-party evaluations and criteria, which may be subjective. These honors do not imply a guarantee of future performance or an endorsement by current or past clients.

Ranking Methodologies:

Donald Raymond, Former Chief Investment Strategist at Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), Joins Star Mountain Capital as Senior Advisor.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A new Tennessee law has eased up on two longstanding financial hurdles for people with felony sentences who want their voting rights back, including a unique requirement among states that they must have fully paid their child support costs.

The Republican-supermajority Legislature approved the Democratic-sponsored change, which now lets people prove they have complied for the last year with child support orders, such as payment plans. The legislation also unties the payment of all court costs from voting rights restoration.

Advocates for years have sought various changes to Tennessee’s voting rights restoration system at the statehouse and in court. They say loosening these two rules marks the biggest rollback of restrictions to voting rights restoration in decades.

“This is huge and this is history,” said Keeda Haynes, senior attorney for the advocacy group Free Hearts led by formerly incarcerated women like her.

Most Republicans voted for it and Democrats supported it unanimously. The law took effect immediately upon Republican Gov. Bill Lee's signature last week.

“I think people are at a point where they want to just remove the barriers out of the way and allow people to be fully functional members of society,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a bill sponsor.

In 2023 and early 2024, the state decided that the system did require going to court or showing proof of a pardon, not just a paperwork process, and that gun rights were required to restore the right to vote. Election officials said a court ruling made the changes necessary, though voting rights advocates said officials misinterpreted the order.

Last year, lawmakers untangled voting and gun rights. But voting rights advocates opposed some of the bill's other provisions, such as keeping the process in the courts, where costs can rack up if someone isn't ruled indigent.

Easing up on the financial requirements uncommonly split legislative Republicans. For instance, Senate Speaker Randy McNally voted against it, while House Speaker Cameron Sexton supported it, noting that people aren't getting forgiveness on making their payments.

“They need to continue paying that, and as long as they do, then there’s a possibility (to restore their voting rights)," Sexton said. "I really think that’s harder for people to argue against than maybe what something else was.”

Republican Rep. Johnny Garrett, who voted no, said in committee his vote would hinge on whether “there still can be an (child support) arrearage owed beyond that 12 months.”

For some, backed-up child support payments could reach hundreds or thousands of dollars, and court costs could be hundreds or thousands more, said Gicola Lane, Campaign Legal Center's Restore Your Vote community partnership senior manager.

Advocates credited their narrowed focus, omitting goals such as automatic restoration of rights, no longer tying restitution payments to voting rights, or offering a path for certain people to restore their right who are permanently disenfranchised, including those convicted of voter fraud or most murder charges.

The bill passed the Senate last year and the House this year.

Lawmakers gave the child support requirement final passage in 2006 within an overhaul bill that also created a voting rights restoration process outside of court. Critics said the child support rule penalized impoverished parents.

Democrats were then narrowly hanging onto legislative leadership in both chambers. Republicans held a slim Senate majority but GOP defectors voted for a Democratic speaker.

Last year marked the dismissal of a nearly five-year-old federal lawsuit over Tennessee’s voting-rights restoration system. Free Hearts and the Campaign Legal Center represented plaintiffs in the long-delayed case, which saw some election policy changes along the way.

Roughly 184,000 people have completed supervision for felonies and their offenses don't preclude them from restoring their voting rights, according to a plaintiffs expert’s 2023 estimate in the lawsuit. About one in 10 were estimated to have outstanding child support payments, and more than six in 10 owed court courts, restitution or both, the expert said.

Both Republican and Democratic-led states have eased the voting rights restoration process in recent years. Some states have added complexities.

In Florida, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for people with felony convictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by requiring payment of fines, fees and court costs.

Voting rights are automatically restored upon release in nearly half of states. In 15 others, it occurs after parole, probation or a similar period and sometimes requires paying outstanding court costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Maine and Vermont, people with felonies keep their voting rights in prison, the NCSL says.

Ten other states including Tennessee require additional government action. Virginia ’s governor must intervene to restore voting rights of people convicted of felonies. In some states, including Tennessee, certain conviction types render someone ineligible.

However, Virginia lawmakers this year have passed a proposed state constitutional amendment to ask voters whether they want automatic voting rights restoration after someone is released from prison. Kentucky lawmakers have proposed a similar change for voters' consideration that would automatically restore voting rights after certain completed sentences, including probation.

FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)