Cedric Bobo

Last year was a fruitful one for Cedric Bobo’s Project Destined, a program that provides diverse students with commercial real estate training. Its community quadrupled to serving over 1,200 students.

The organization grew its corporate partners, too, from 10 lead partners to over 110. It also expanded its staff from 10 to 150, and all the team members are alums of Project Destined.

New corporate partners of Project Destined included JLL, CBRE, Eastdil Secured, Jamestown, LivCor, Berkadia, Nuveen, WeWork, Colliers, BGO — the list goes on.

“In real estate, you find partners that don’t just want to do it, they want to scale,” Bobo said. “And I think we caught the benefit of their desire to do it. And then we were able to build a system that could just grow with limited friction over time.”

In the past year, Project Destined introduced new training in sustainability, affordable housing, development, investment management and retail. It also expanded globally to Canada as well as the U.K. and Europe.

One of the trends Bobo noticed from last year was a ramp-up in demand for junior talent. The accelerated deal pace necessitated the need for junior-level support. However, one thing that was missing from the current education system is communication training, according to the former Carlyle Group executive.

“How to send someone a thank-you note? How to establish eye contact on Zoom? What’s the etiquette for reaching out on LinkedIn?” Bobo said. “So our approach is at our leadership development course. You get 12 hours of communications training on top of all the technical training.”

Another major investment Project Destined made in 2021 was technology. The program built a technology platform to help employers reach students. It also partnered with talent acquisition teams.

“It’s been really fun to watch the industry commit to translating words into action,” Bobo said. “And the community has been extraordinary.”