Justin Starnes

Mr. Starnes serves as the Managing Director and Co-Portfolio Manager for Cygnus. He serves on the investment committee and oversees investment management and the operations of Cygnus. His investment expertise is focused on underwriting real estate investments, credit underwriting, bond analysis, and risk control oversight.

Prior to his role at Cygnus Group, Mr. Starnes worked for Banc of America Securities, LLC (BAS) for four years as Vice-President on the Fixed Income Research team. In this role, he was a sell-side research analyst in the investment grade bond market, covering the REIT, homebuilding, lodging, and retail sectors. His research and investment recommendations were used by institutional clients, BAS’ internal trading, sales, bond syndicate desk, and other public-side groups for investment decision-making. He served on the underwriting teams for the placement of over $3 billion of investment grade REIT bonds.

Mr. Starnes started his career at Deloitte and Touche. He is a CPA, holds a B.S. and M.S. in Accounting from Appalachian State University, and received an M.B.A in Finance from Wake Forest University.