Creates Head of Talent position and adds additional Operations Associates
NEW YORK, March 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Astara Capital Partners, LLC (“Astara”), a middle-market private equity firm, is pleased to announce the continued expansion and development of its team.
Ensuring its portfolio companies have strong executive leadership teams capable of executing the value creation plan is central to Astara’s investment strategy. Recognizing that recruiting, augmenting, and developing management teams is a critical and full-time job, the firm has hired Diana Barr as Human Capital Operating Partner.
“Diana has spent her entire career in executive search and has led talent acquisition and talent development at major industrial companies such as Grainger and Boeing, as well as in private equity. Hiring someone of her caliber reflects how we regard the importance of this role. We are confident she will add tremendous value to our portfolio companies and are excited to have her join Astara”, said Michael Ranson, Managing Partner of Astara.
“I’m excited to join Astara because the firm understands something fundamental: talent is an upstream driver of enterprise value. Astara’s commitment to operational engagement and partnership with management teams creates the ideal environment to institutionalize a differentiated talent playbook,” said Ms. Barr. “I believe this deep appreciation of the importance of talent to a company’s success is uncommon in most of the private equity industry.”
In addition to hiring Ms. Barr, Astara continues to expand its operations team. Gian Paolo Pernicone and Shane Januik joined the firm as Operations Associates and are responsible for assisting portfolio companies with a wide array of operational improvement initiatives.
“From inception, we architected Astara to be a unified team of both investors and operators. Our continued investment in the operations team pays future dividends by helping our companies execute their value creation plans. Astara’s balanced focus on investing and operations bolsters our portfolio companies’ capabilities and helps them accelerate earnings growth,” said Mr. Ranson.
Chris Curti, an Operating Partner with Astara, added “the Operations Associate program has been very successful. They increase the bandwidth and capabilities of portfolio company management teams and quickly become invaluable resources. The feedback I receive from leadership teams is consistent – their involvement helped us execute faster and with greater certainty.”
About Astara Capital Partners
Astara Capital Partners is an integrated team of investors and operators investing in the middle market. The firm brings capital, strategic, and operational resources to its investments to build sustainable value and position them for long-term success. Astara focuses on a variety of sectors where it has deep experience, including packaging and converting, food, building products, forest products, and industrial manufacturing, distribution, and services. More information about Astara can be found at www.astaracapital.com.
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SOURCE Astara Capital Partners
