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.

MILAN, Italy (AP) — Annika Malacinski remembers the moment the door to the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics was slammed shut.

On a flight from Munich to Denver, she bought airplane Wi-Fi to join a conference call with the International Olympic Committee, certain that Nordic combined competition would at last be opened up to female athletes.

“Then the decision came: ‘no.’ No explanation, no discussion. Just ‘no,’ and then they moved on to the next topic,” she told The Associated Press from her training base in Norway. “I cried for eight hours straight on that flight. When I arrived in Denver, my eyes were swollen shut. It felt like my world had crashed.”

That was in June, 2022. And despite an ongoing campaign led by Malacinski, an athlete from Colorado now aged 24, her sport remains the last to exclude women – even as Milan Cortina is showcasing the highest level of female participation in Winter Games history at 47%.

Malacinski is a frequent top-10 finisher at elite competitions in the sport that combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing and demands rigorous year-round training.

Her younger brother, Niklas, will compete in the men’s event for the United States and she plans to travel to northern Italy to cheer him on.

“It’s bittersweet. I know how hard he works, and he absolutely deserves it,” Malacinski said. “I do the same sport as him. I jump the same ski jumps and ski the same courses. The only difference is that I’m a woman.”

Female skiers racing in Seefeld, Austria, last weekend protested the exclusion by raising their poles overhead to form an X.

Men have competed in the Nordic combined since the first Winter Games more than a century ago, at Chamonix, France in 1924.

The sport is now at risk of being removed from the program at the next Winter Olympics in 2030. The IOC says Nordic combined has struggled to attract participation from enough countries and draws a limited television audience.

Women were excluded entirely from the first modern Olympics in 1896. When they were allowed to compete in Paris four years later, participation was limited to a handful of sports, including tennis, archery and croquet.

Track and field opened to women only in 1928, at the Amsterdam Games – but restrictions were imposed around beliefs of female fragility. Although the 800 meters was originally included, it was later withdrawn for more than three decades.

The first women’s Olympic marathon did not take place until 1984 in Los Angeles – 88 years after the race inspired by an ancient Greek battle debuted.

Nearly all differences have since been eliminated, though some disparities remain. At the Summer Olympics, women compete in the seven-event heptathlon, while men contest the 10-event decathlon.

At the Winter Games, progress arrived even later. Ski jumping was off-limits to women as recently as the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and was introduced four years later at Sochi.

Cross-country skiing’s distance overhaul is the most recent and sweeping change. At Milan Cortina, men and women will race the same distances across all events for the first time in Olympic history.

Previously, the longest women’s race topped out at 30 kilometers, compared with 50 for men. Both will now have 50-kilometer mass start races — like at Nordic Ski World Championships last year.

Malacinski says she will continue her campaign for inclusion, now focused on 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps.

“I’m a very gritty person,” she said. “If I put my mind to something, I know I can do it.”

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

FILE - Annika Malacinski of the United States soars through the air during the women's individual compact NH 5km competition at the Nordic Combined World Cup in Ramsau, Austria, Saturday, Dec.16, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)