CNL Financial Group’s
CEO and CFO announce their resignations, effective at the end of the year.
Thomas K. Sittema, the CEO of CNL Financial Group, is resigning after eight years with the financial company based in downtown Orlando.
Also leaving the company is Chief Financial Officer Tracy G. Schmidt, who spent 24 years at CNL and was the enterprise CFO since 2004.
The company said in a news release the two were “leaving to pursue business and personal interests.”
Sittema had been labeled by the company as the successor to founder and chairman James Seneff. Before CNL, he had been at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Bank of America for 27 years. Sittema was appointed to the chief executive spot in 2011.
CNL said Stephen H. Mauldin and Chirag Bhavsar have been named as co-CEOs of the company. Mauldin will oversee all real estate investments, legal, and other corporate functions. Bhavsar will oversee all of CNL’s private capital investments, financial management and other corporate services.
Mauldin and Bhavsar will have joint responsibility for CNL’s sales functions, and both will report directly to Seneff.
The announcement said Seneff will continue to oversee the company’s long-term strategy and vision as Mauldin and Bhavsar manage the company’s day-to-day operations.
Mauldin joined CNL in 2011 as president and chief operating officer of CNL Lifestyle Properties and CNL Healthcare Properties. He is group president and executive leader for all CNL real estate focused funds.
Bhavsar has spent the past 16 years working with CNL-affiliated companies and has a banking and financial services background. He has served as chief financial officer for three banks, including CNL Bank.
The leadership change will be effective at the end of the year, but Sittema and Schmidt said they will consult with CNL through the first quarter of 2018.
“I deeply appreciate the contributions made by Tom and Tracy to our company’s success, and I look forward to working closely with Steve and Chirag as we prepare for the next cycle of opportunity to benefit our investors,” Seneff said in an announcement.
Sittema, 58, arrived in Orlando in 2009, just as the impact of the Great Recession was at its peak. At the time, CNL had been almost entirely focused on real estate. As an alternative investment manager, CNL invests people’s money in areas other than stocks and bonds. CNL is best known to many Orlandoans as the company that built two office towers next to City Hall in downtown Orlando.
Seneff and CNL had the foresight to sell off billions in real estate in 2006 and 2007, which meant the company made it through the recession better than most.
Sittema was the outside adviser who handled most of those deals, working for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Seneff had invited him to move from Charlottle, N.C., and become part of the succession plan.
Sittema pledged in an interview with the Sentinel in 2015 to make the company more entrepreneurial. He had taken up community leadership positions, such as past chairman of the Orlando Economic Development Commission. He was also involved in Lift Orlando, which works for a revival of Orlando’s west side.
Seneff launched the company in 1973 with a 50-year plan and a vision, which is drawing to an end now. The company was intially called CNL for “Commercial Net Lease.”
Although Seneff’s plan focused mostly on real estate, it has included diverse areas of real estate — restaurants, medical offices, assisted living facilities and ski resorts, for example.
Founded in 1973, CNL is private investment management firm, in real estate and alternative investments. The company says it and its affiliates have formed or acquired companies with more than $34 billion in assets.