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Bio
Cedric Bobo is a co-founder of Project Destined. Prior to founding Project Destined, Cedric spent over 20 years as an investor and investment banker including over 10 years at the The Carlyle Group where he committed over $2 Billion of equity capital. In 2015, Cedric was named to the “10 Top Powerful Black People on Wall Street You Should Know.” Prior to Carlyle, he worked at D.L.J. Merchant Banking (London) and McCown De Leeuw. He is the co-founder of Charter Board Partners, a non-profit focused on governance in the charter school sector. He also serves on the District of Columbia’s Office of Public Charter School Financing and Support Credit Committee and the boards of the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy and Beauvoir, and The National Cathedral Elementary School. Cedric received his MBA from Harvard Business School and a BSME, summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee.
Show Notes
Current Role
- Co-Founder of Project Destined (5:30)
- Build a pipeline of executives for the real estate community
- Build a generation of owners of real estate
- Chief resident cheerleader- Salesperson for product (6:15)
- Clarify brand and solve problems
- Provide an existing product or build a new one
- Staff is all current participants
Origins
- Born in Sardis, MS (7:45)
- Great grandfather bought land in 1890 for a farm (8:00)
- Mom worked at Fedex in 1970s in Memphis, TN (8:45)
- Fedex was a “hot startup” then
- Met interesting people from around the world working at Fedex (9:00)
- Grew up around entrepreneurs (9:30)
- Good schools that were all black schools in Memphis (10:45)
- Mother was great influence in educational inspiration (11:00)
- Built his self-reliance (11:30)
- Father was not close- parents divorced when a young man (12:15)
- Sympathy for his Dad in a racially oppressed environment (12:40)
- As he’s grown older he has an appreciation (13:20)
Education
- Went to University of Tennessee and studied engineering, but wanted to be an entrepreneur (13:50)
- Summer program at Harvard Business School (14:30)
- Went to Oxford for a year abroad- be able to stand up in an interview to offer a breadth in experiences (15:00)
- UK had different perspective on race as they didn’t know origin or preconceived pattern- more perceived as a “brash American” (16:40)
- Grew up with some insecurities, but experience in England gave him confidence (18:30)
- Has “tunnel vision” focus (19:00)
Career & Harvard Business School
- Went to Solomon Brothers (20:00)
- Private equity group there and changed his professional pursuit
- Career actually started at DLJ (20:40)
- Went to California for another investment bank
- Attended Harvard Business School (21:00)
- Distinct focus on private equity (21:30)
- 900 person classes including Black presence (22:30)
- Push for entrepreneurship increased then after tech bust (23:20)
- Great place to build skills toward entrepreneurship and private equity (23:45)
- Went to Credit Suisse in London after graduation for 2 yrs. (24:15)
Joining Carlyle
- Recruited to Carlyle to come to DC and join private equity group and was there for 10 years while they went public (24:45)
- Gave him credibility for future roles (28:00)
- Pick up skills like business development or building a business plan (28:30)
- Executive presence (29:45)
- Received more experience earlier
- Build a thesis for a project and persuade people to join the project
- Needed self reliance to build his own companies
- David Rubenstein– Took company international through his drive and doggedness (30:00)
- Transactions between 2011-14 gave him financial comfort and experience buying real estate personally (32:00)
- Began to see the impact of housing that he had purchased in Black areas to improve the community (32:45)
- Movie- Destined about a black youth who made a decision to be an architect (34:15)
Project Destined
- Combination of the capital base and the inspiration from the movie gave him the impetus to start Project Destined in Detroit (34:40)
- Detroit was still problematic outside the “core” area in 2016 when he started (36:45)
- Set up strategy and went there regularly (37:30)
- Taught elements and then put people on teams to pitch and see themselves as owners (38:00)
- Train students to improve their neighborhood
- Preach ownership- “Do you want to be an owner and participate in the change in Detroit?” (38:30)
- Jalen Rose Leadership Academy (40:00)
- He invested his own money to pay each student to participate in the training (41:00)
- Demystifying the process of buying and owning property (42:00)
- Looking for drive and curiosity (42:45)
- Why real estate? (43:45)
- How do you want to use it for your career?
- Generated press to bring awareness (44:00)
- Opened up in Memphis with George Cates (Mid America Properties) (45:00)
- Met Alex Rodriguez at a Jennifer Lopez concert and he loved the idea of Project Destined and brought him to Miami (45:40)
- Then Alex suggested the Bronx and that stimulated contributions from Judy Dimon and Jon Gray to build the program in NY (46:30)
- CUNY students then joined via Dimon’s help (47:00)
- Alex Rodriguez’s and Jennifer Lopez’s influence was strong (Interview– CNBC) (Interview- Cedric Bobo and Alex Rodriguez)
- Project Destined curriculum (48:45)
- Teaching to an “outcome” as an owner (49:15)
- Creating confidence that students could “do it” (49:50)
- Always tweaking program until he reached Miami (50:00)
- Latin orientation was different than Black (50:30)
- Built a learning platform with an animation company to build an animation model (51:00)
- E-learning builds a foundation (51:20)
- Scaled his learning platform with the e-learning (52:00)
- Teach acquisitions first before development (53:30)
- Orients students to either finding cash flow properties or to look at building to cash flow in development (54:00)
- Language first and layer on process and people in context in the community (54:50)
- Looking to scale the practice to every major city in the world (55:20)
- Washington DC– Partnership program so sponsorship is key (56:00)
- Developer called him about a Howard University project that provided a platform with a local development company
- Hines, Aria, Equity Residential
- 100 high school students in DC this semester (1:00:30)
- ULI’s Urban Plan (1:01:30)
- Networking- Project Destined to start (1:03:00)
- In college, being “of service” or volunteering is important (1:03:40)
- Getting involved in non-profit programs (1:04:00)
- Learning how to write (1:04:30)
- Having a goal to have a call to action (1:05:00)
- Keep practicing tasks that are initially uncomfortable- “Put in the reps” (1:06:00)
- Changing mindsets (1:07:00)
- Local partner works with students to compete in a competitive process regularly to win (1:08:00)
- 10 week process of analyzing a live deal (1:08:45)
- Build an amazing bond
- Build familiarity between professionals and young talent (1:09:45)
- Sponsors end up hiring the talent (1:10:20)
- Built a certification to participate (1:11:00)
- 2019 was a good year in NY and LA and training was with Zoom (1:11:30)
- Pandemic has opened opportunities for summer internship from the REBNY for 100 student interns in the Summer and 150 in the Fall (1:13:00)
- 300 interns now trained this past year (1:14:00)
- Accept virtual training
- 26 employees are former students (1:15:40)
- Build teams with alumni of PD (1:16:00)
- Using brand to get jobs
- Stories
- Matthew Kinzie– Renaissance HS to Howard student (1:18:00)
- Myles Franklin– Memphis will have four opportunities (1:19:00)
- Dream (1:20:30)
- Gap of talent and diversity (1:21:00)
- Real Estate offers a great opportunity (1:21:30)
- Banking is now a new initiative
- International expansion (1:21:50)
- Four accredited courses now at various universities (1:22:00)
Personal Milestones & Advice
- Wins- Recognized that he could go to HBS (1:23:30)
- Losses- Interviewing with McKinsey- didn’t get the job (1:24:15)
- Favorite story- Investment deal at Carlyle- Rail deal after meeting the CEO of the company and he chased it down and won (1:25:00)
- Brookfield (his client) bought the company (1:25:30)
- Life priorities
- Family first and business tied into family is important (1:27:00)
- Job flexibility & integration
- Advice to 25 yr. old self- “Don’t be afraid to be afraid” (1:28:20)
- Recognize fear and “crush it” (1:29:00)
- Billboard: “Join us” and “Be an owner” (1:29:40)
- Conversation on MLK Day (Letter from Birmingham Jail)
Postscript
- Tom Amos- “Destined”- Story living two different destinies.
- $250,000 in scholarships
- Context to give back to young people
- Benefits at getting involved at a younger age
- Project Destined process reviewed
- Urban Plan discussion
Similar Episodes
- John Green & Joe Carrol (Part 1, Part 2)
- Mike Bush
- Jair Lynch
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