BFTP is 30+ year public-private investment firm, focused on helping early-stage, technology-based firms with funding, business and technical expertise, and access to network of resources. BFTP makes direct investments in promising, technology-oriented companies throughout the Commonwealth to fund critical commercialization activities and growth needs. Thanks to the rigorous vetting process, a BFTP investment often serves as a key endorsement to other funding sources, enabling companies to attract the follow-on investment they need to move beyond start-up and into full-fledged commercialization.
Meet Our Team
A team of cross industry experts in strategy, real estate, retail, hospitality, and technology.
Executive Team
John grew up in a family built on entrepreneurial spirit. His mother, Kathleen Cecilian, has helped to create powerful brands for some of the most respected master-planned community developers.
Before starting Cecilian Partners, John spent seventeen years in retail management and strategy working for a variety of global lifestyle brands during a time of hypergrowth and emergence. He has been a leader and key contributor in the development and North American expansion of several iconic brands including Abercrombie & Fitch, AllSaints, Michael Kors, Quiksilver, Under Armour and Rapha. John’s had P&L oversight over $150MM working in major city centers and regions nationally for these brands. He is an expert in commerce strategy, customer experience, and the recruitment and training of teams and people.
For years, John gleaned insights into the broken nature of the customer journey for community developers and production home builders. He understands how to solve the opportunity in the marketplace and believes he has assembled and continues to build a team of outside industry experts to help overcome the customer obstacles plaguing this category of real estate.
John holds a Master of Business Administration in Systems Thinking and Global Finance from Villanova University, and earned his Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Psychology from Duquesne University. John is an active member of the Urban Land Institute and the Community Development Council (CDC) Gold.
As Co-Founder and CSO/EVP for Cecilian Partners, Philip brings over a decade of experience from Accenture’s Strategy practice, advising the senior leadership of Fortune 500 companies on growth and operational strategy. His experience helping clients across technology, industrial, hospitality, energy, and consumer goods industries gives him a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities that exist across the market.
Most recently, Philip was a founding member of Bloom – Accenture’s digital growth incubator. He led small teams of strategists, designers, data scientists, and developers to partner with clients and build new digital businesses targeting ideas that had $1B+ valuations.
He was a pioneer in “human-centered” strategy and design, combining traditional strategy rigor with design creativity, data insights, and real technology build, and is excited to bring a fresh approach to growth and experience in the real estate industry.
Philip holds degrees in Mathematical Economics and Management from Rice University and the London School of Economics. Phil is an active member of the Urban Land Institute and the Community Development Council (CDC) Blue.
Debra Wyatte joined Cecilian Partners in January of 2020 bringing well over twelve years of customer experience expertise working with community developers, production home builders, and Homeowner Associations.
Before joining CP, Debra worked directly with 92 of the 118 MPC's within CCMC's portfolio of communities, Debra leverages trends in design, operations, and programming that improve resident engagement, bringing to life community pillars and/or developer visions like health and wellness through strategic social programming and planning. Her understanding of MPC's aids our clients in establishing and evaluating their customer experience at any stage of community development.
She was excited to join the Cecilian team explaining that ``I believe The XO platform is going to enrich the prospect experience, making The XO the next big thing for MPCs. As we have watched the market shift on leveraging lifestyle or social capital as a marketing tool which is now the norm in any MPC. I'm ready to push the status quo again, with data leading the way``.
Debra Wyatte holds a Bachelor of Science in Park and Recreation and Tourism Management from Indiana University. She is an active member of the Urban Land Institute at national and local levels. She is a member of the Community Development Council (CDC) Green and Building Healthy Places Committee in Colorado.
Joe joined Cecilian Partners in June of 2020. He has over twelve years of experience in software engineering and management. He's worked in a variety of industries in the Greater Philadelphia area including telecommunications, healthcare, and logistics, with a focus on scaling data platforms and data integration. Through his experience as CTO, he's proven his ability to recruit and lead engineering teams to help fuel the growth of the business. Joe has an intense focus on crafting simple and secure solutions and strives to instill that in his team. He's constantly focused on personal growth (for himself and his team) and values mentorship and teaching opportunities.
When he's not working, he enjoys reading, golfing, and raising his four boys in the Greater Philadelphia suburbs with his wife Janine. He's an avid Philly sports fan, and occasionally writes about tech and life on his blog.
Joe holds Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Scranton and a Master's Degree in Computer Science from Drexel University.
After graduating West Virginia University – College of Business & Economics (Cum Laude), Jennifer spent over a decade working in the financial services industry for one of the largest global finance vendors in the world at DLL Group, a Netherlands-based company with over $45B in assets, providing asset-based solutions across industries from healthcare to agriculture.
Climbing the corporate ladder from Global Management Trainee to Sr. Program Manager, where she managed a $200M healthcare portfolio, Jennifer decided to shift gears and seek her entrepreneurial pursuits; ultimately joining her family's real estate brand consultancy Cecilian Worldwide as VP of Finance & Operations.
Jennifer officially joined Cecilian Partners in January of 2021 as CFO, bringing her much needed financial acumen and trust to help grow the business the right way for capital partners and clients alike.
Jennifer's passion for real estate runs deep, as she is also a licensed realtor with the prestigious Addison Wolfe brokerage out of New Hope Pennsylvania.
Her cross-functional financial expertise, and real estate knowledge continues to shape the growth of Cecilian Partners.
Team
A little over 7 years ago I quit my corporate job and moved to an island. I literally booked the flight from work, bought a suitcase in Miami and went to St. Thomas, USVI.🤔 I didn't plan it and I didn't know a soul.
After attempting to get two tech startups off the ground and going through a ``spiritual awakening,`` I am right where I am supposed to be. I ❤ learning about energy, quantum physics, cooking, traveling with my BF in an RV around the US, dancing and the occasional rap!
``We've all been given a gift. The gift of life. What we do with our lives is our gift back.`` Edo
As VP of Product and Delivery, Todd brings over 4 years of master planned community development experience to Cecilian Partners. Through his time spent at Republic Property Group, he witnessed first-hand the complexities of the industry and provides direct MPC experience to Cecilian Partners’ clients. Todd has been involved with The XO since its beginnings, playing an integral role in the entire implementation process.
During his time at Cecilian Partners, Todd has led the onboarding and deployment of The XO for each of Cecilian Partners’ large-scale master planned communities, including the discovery, training, and ongoing customer success for each project. He personally has trained over 250 users across 25 homebuilder teams around the country.
Todd has applied his curious nature to learn how to solve complex problems in the MPC industry. His experience at Republic Property Group allowed him the opportunity to deeply understand the challenges developers face when trying to shape the journey of would-be home buyers and how they can utilize technology to help solve the customer journey.
Todd holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics from the University of Texas. He is an active member of the Urban Land Institute and is currently involved regionally through the ULI Chicago.
As Head of Customer Success, William brings to Cecilian Partners a passion for delivering a superior customer experience, cultivated over his 30 year retail leadership career. After launching his career with GAP, Inc where William learned from the industry’s best, he rapidly achieved success with some of the world’s leading brands, including Levi’s, Armani, Kiehl’s and Petit Bateau.
In his roles as Levi’s Regional Director and Armani Exchange Director of Operations,he led operational initiatives across stores at times of dynamic growth. William’s ability to craft service cultures had a pronounced impact in his role as VP of Stores at Kiehl’s, a notably client-centric retailer. As U.S. President of Petit Bateau, he expanded the American retail and wholesale division of the French luxury childrenswear company. Most recently, William was Director of Client Partnerships for Alliance Data, where he and his team managed client relations for strategic retailer credit card programs ranging from $40M to $1.5B.
He is very excited about his role with the Cecilian Partners, which he defines as “ensuring that all of our customers -- whether it be a developer, builder, or home buyer -- achieve their desired outcomes through their use of our platforms and interactions with our team. ”William holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Stanford University.
Amira has almost a decade of experience in data and analytics, after receiving her MBA from Darden School of Business. Before business school, she had a career in software consulting in India, Egypt and the UAE across multiple industries. Her experience across these fields brings a unique perspective to Cecilian Partners. She is a Tableau Desktop Certified Associate with years of experience building and designing Tableau dashboards, creating an opportunity for best-in-class reporting and visualizations for our clients.
She works across the data spectrum, honing in on data quality and stewardship to defining the right metrics, building reports and developing insights.
A recent graduate from Seton Hall University, Luke holds a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences and is currently employed at Cecilian Partners as a Sales Engineer. While at Seton Hall, Luke focused on research as he pursued his degree in History. “The work is a bit different, but it’s an exciting and promising market,” Luke said when asked about the growing MPC market. Luke is excited to continue working with Cecilian Partners and says that thus far it has been an “absolute privilege and pleasure to be working with such an intelligent and motivated team.”
Jeff is a highly experienced front-end software engineer. He's worked for companies ranging from yC startups to Fortune 500s for the past 5 years. At Cecilian Partners, he leads development of all front-end features and architecture.
When he's not at the computer he loves to spend his time outdoors and connecting with other creators.
Bruno has been a full stack developer for more than five years, working primarily with jquery and angular in the front-end and .net and sql server in the backend. Most recently, his focus has been primarily on front-end, working with vue.js, react.js, node.js, Docker, CD/CI and javascript.
He thrives on challenge and learning new technologies.
Daniel A. Maldonado Morales is a fullstack developer based in Guadalajara. He has experience developing applications using Java and Python, user interface design using React, Due, Tailwind and Bulma.
Daniel holds a degree in engineering and a master's degree from the Instituto Tecnologico de la Laguna graduate school.
Outside of work, Daniel enjoys playing video games and watching movies from all over the world.
Distinguished group of industry executives who help to guide our strategy and accomplish our mission
Ned Moore has been a life long entrepreneur and has had an impressive record of success in a wide array of sectors including information technology, real estate and the distribution industries. As part of this experience he has focused on all facets of these markets providing vision, strategy, operational skills and leadership during several phases of a company’s lifecycle. He has extensive experience in raising capital from a variety of different sources and sectors to fuel companies experiencing rapid growth. He also has a deep understanding on how to build teams, boards, and appropriate governance structures to support rapidly growing companies along with both buy side and sell side M&A transaction experience.
Currently, Ned is the co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Clutch, which provides a mobile platform that unifies gifting, loyalty and shopping in a single experience. Prior to Clutch, he was the co-founder, Chairman and CEO at Portico Systems providing enterprise software solutions into the healthcare payer market experiencing tremendous growth and ultimately being sold to McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK).
Ned works with companies to apply the appropriate strategy, vision, and operational execution to enable these companies to achieve their high growth goals as they produce tangible value to the customers and markets they serve. Along with being very active with other entrepreneurs as an advisor and an angel investor, he serves on the boards of FinPay and Empactful Capital. Ned is also a member of the Advisory Boards for Coral Homes and SocialLadder.
Ned graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Villanova University. He serves as an Advisory Council Member to Villanova’s Center for Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship, (“ICE” Center), which helps instill the entrepreneurial spirit in students across all the colleges at Villanova and is part of the Villanova School of Business. Ned also was the past Chairman of the Board of the Philadelphia Boys Choir & Chorale where he still serves as a member of the Board and the Chairman of the Robert Hamilton Endowment Fund.
The President and Chief Executive Officer of Stockbridge Associates, LLC George E. Casey, Jr. is an accessible leader and mentor who is known for his approachability and open communication.
George has experience as an operating executive including Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Division President. George has served as a consultant, board member for both private and public boards, and industry expert and speaker on residential building and development industries.
George is a full member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), has twice served as Chair of ULI’s Residential Neighborhood Development Council, currently serves as ULI’s Community Development Council, and is a Governor of the Urban Land Institute Foundation. He also serves as the Chair of the Housing Innovation Alliance and as Chair of the Vistage group for Southern Maine.
George is the author of articles on trends in the industry; is a frequent speaker at industry conferences; and author of the book ``Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze: The Valuable Habit of Learning from Your Business Experiences.``
Mark Schobel was appointed as Chief Innovation & Technology Officer of Aquestive in 2014 after serving as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, Co-President and a member of its Board of Directors since November 2005. From March 2001 to November 2005, he was the Global Head of New Technology and Product Innovation for the Consumer Health Business Unit at Novartis where he pioneered thin film delivery of systemic drugs. Prior to Novartis, Mr. Schobel held various general management positions with Reed & Carnrick Pharmaceuticals, Warner-Lambert, and Pharmaceutical Formulations Inc.
During his nearly 15 years at the helm, Jim Zboril has led the evolution of Tavistock Development Company from land owner to a full-service, integrated, multi-use real estate development, construction, and management firm. He oversees all company operations, including management of Tavistock’s flagship project: Lake Nona, a 17-square-mile, master-designed community in Orlando, Florida, ranked among the top-selling communities in America.
Laura leads LWR Communities, the residential arm of Lakewood Ranch, the nation’s top-selling multigenerational community in 2018, 2019, and 2020. She oversees a 16,000-lot residential portfolio under active development by 20 builders with 2,000+ annual sales. Prior to Lakewood Ranch, Laura was vice president of marketing for Willowsford, a 4,000-acre “agri-hood” community in Northern Virginia. From 2002 to 2007 Laura served as vice president of corporate development for RCLCO in Washington, DC, and before that, held positions with the Urban Land Institute, Greater Houston Partnership, and IBM/CB Commercial. Laura serves as a vice chair of the Urban Land Institute’s Tampa Bay District Council. She is a native of Madrid, Spain, and holds a B.S. in Urban Development from The University of Arizona.
Team of experts guiding and shaping our approach, product, and execution.
CV Ramachandran is a Partner at PA Consulting. He focuses on helping Consumer and Industrial Manufacturing companies improve bottom-line performance with his expertise in Operational Improvement and Digital Transformation. CV is currently working with both public and private companies to accelerate and enhance sales growth, reduce structural and operating costs, increase cash flow and optimize the transition to a digital business.
Prior to that, CV was the founder of CVR Partners, a business advisory firm, that specializes in helping companies with Digital Transformation. He also is an active member of the Board of Directors of two companies in the USA and India and of two non-profit organizations.
Prior to launching CVR Partners, CV served as Senior Managing Director at Accenture where he managed business development and delivery at several accounts including Daimler, Scientific Games, an autonomous electric vehicle start-up, Case New Holland and Lennar. Prior to that, CV held leadership positions as a partner in New York, London and Hong Kong at AlixPartners, A.T. Kearney, and Booz Allen Hamilton. Prior to consulting, CV worked for at Ford Motor Company and Midland Ross. CV has been recognized by his peers and teams for inclusive collaboration, team-orientation, and coaching skills.
Specific areas of CV’s functional expertise include business strategy, product development, digital transformation, procurement, cash flow management, and due diligence. He has published several papers and articles and has led panel discussions at World Economic Forum sessions.
CV received an MBA from the University of Michigan, an MS from Carnegie Mellon University and a BS from the Indian Institute of Technology.
Kathleen Cecilian is Founder and CEO of Cecilian Worldwide, a strategic brand consultancy with offices in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.
Kathleen's endless consumer curiosity and creativity led her to begin her career as a copywriter with the Leo Burnett Company, one of the world’s pre-eminent ad agencies, working on such well-known brands as McDonald's, Heinz, Memorex and Kellogg’s. Over the years she has successfully leveraged her expertise on how consumers interact with products to develop innovative and creative solutions for the development of master planned communities throughout the United States. Her creative problem solving allows for imaginative solutions to real estate problems.
Since launching her consultancy more than 25 years ago, she has led the strategic development of many of the nation's top master planned community brands. Cecilian Worldwide is focused on delivering blue-chip clients big ideas and big results. The company specializes in real estate business strategy, strategic branding, marketing, brand identity and creative development.
Kathleen is a Governor of the Urban Land Institute; past ULI Program Committee Member; Former Council Counselor to the ULI Community Development Council Flights; and Outgoing Chair of the Community Development Council- Blue Flight. She is a frequent speaker on all subjects related to brand creation and strategies for real estate.
Teri has brought to life some of the most valued and recognized brands in resort and community development. During her 10+ years as the Chief Marketing Officer for Newland, Teri was the architect of the Newland brand, and its application in more than 40 communities in 14 states, where she also led new community start-up, and opened 11 new communities in 4 years. Before that, her brand design agency in Canada handled all of Intrawest Corporation’s vacation ownership resort launches in 3 countries.
Today her company, tst ink (www.tst-ink.com) works with some of the most innovative community developers and entrepreneurs to identify deep customer insights and create places and brands people connect with and experiences that matter.
A fast-thinking, passionate marketing professional, she was named “one of the most influential women in homebuilding`` by BUILDER Magazine and was inducted into the William S. Marvin Hall of Fame for Design Excellence, the second woman ever to earn this honor. Teri writes monthly for the National Association of Home Builders’ Best in American Living and is a frequent speaker on consumer insights and brand experience design.
She has a Master’s in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University, a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Sociology from Simon Fraser University, and studied Journalism at Carleton University. Teri serves as Assistant Chair of Urban Land Institute's Residential Neighborhood Development Council, is a member of the advisory board for Garman Homes and the Founder of Philosophers Café 101, a public forum for engaging conversation and exchanging ideas.
Over the past 30 years Gregg has worked with leading real estate developers, land owners, investors, builders and public sector entities, helping them make the best development, investment and/or planning decisions for their real estate. Gregg’s advisory work has included market evaluations and strategies for residential, commercial, and mixed-use developments; town centers and suburban business districts; and economic development studies for cities, counties, and community improvement districts.
Since joining the firm in 1979, Gregg has conducted and supervised real estate consulting assignments throughout the U.S. and abroad. His international work includes projects for clients in Argentina, Mexico, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Antigua, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.
Gregg participated as a market specialist to help create ULI’s Ten Principles for Developing Successful Town Centers, and is a contributing author of ULI’s Transforming Suburban Business Districts, Active Adult Retirement Communities, and Housing for Niche Markets. He published a white paper for the U.S. EPA titled The Market for Smart Growth.
Gregg has also published articles and/or been quoted as an industry expert in The New York Times, San Francisco Examiner, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Real Estate Today, Urban Land, The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta Business Chronicle, and Builder, with regard to a variety of land use and development-related issues. He has been a speaker for national and regional groups, including ULI and the National Association of Home Builders.
Todd joined RCLCO in 2004 and leads our Austin, Texas office. Todd manages and directs engagements for developers, land owners, investors, and public sector entities seeking strategic development, investment, and/or planning advice regarding their real estate. His work is focused on providing strategic guidance for master-planned communities, high-rise mixed-use developments, resorts, and other complex, multi-use, large-scale land use challenges. For these engagements, he conducts highest and best use analyses, market opportunity analyses, consumer research, economic development assessments, financial analyses, fiscal impact analyses, metropolitan growth trends analyses, and various other analytical tasks to help guide clients’ planning decisions and development strategies.
Prior to joining RCLCO, Todd’s professional career includes over seven years of experience in construction management with Skanska in Atlanta, GA and W. H. Bass, Inc. in Norcross, GA. Much of his work was concentrated on managing ground-up construction projects in retail, banking, education, and telecommunication as well as interior build-outs of high-rise office buildings. He received his Master of Business Administration (finance and real estate) from Emory University and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Virginia. He is an active member of the Urban Land Institute, serving on ULI Austin’s Advisory Board and the Community Development Council (CDC-Black), and has been a guest speaker/lecturer/panelist at numerous real estate industry events and universities.
Backed by a generation of deep expertise in real estate and technology.
RCLCO Real Estate Advisors
RCLCO is a 50+ year real estate strategy and consulting firm, advising on $5B of real estate annually and a major strategic player across all classes and types of real estate. They are an investor in and strategic partner in the market with Cecilian Partners, seeing an opportunity to use technology and data to meet major developer and builder needs. RCLCO CEO Gadi Kaufmann states, “We always want to bring more to our clients. The world of real estate technology, “prop tech” is changing the industry and as always we want to play a strategic role in that change. We believe community developers and home builders will both gain efficiencies and improve the overall consumer experience by implementing this software product.”
Throughout history, the real estate industry has adapted to perceived and actual risks. Building codes…
Transforming
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Experience
For Real Estate