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)
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