“I don’t expect wholesale changes,” Sittema tells GlobeSt.com. “It’s more tweaking on the margins and working to stimulate and promote incremental growth across the company. We are moving to reorient the company structurally to focus more on becoming a functional organization than one organized around capital investments. We’re well-positioned to take advantage of opportunities in today’s market and continue growing our platform.”

Over the past 18 months, CNL has launched two new companies that intend to qualify as real estate investment trusts (REITs)—CNL Macquarie Global Growth Trust Inc. and Macquarie CNL Global Income Trust Inc.—in partnership with Australia-based Macquarie Group Ltd., one of the largest investment banking and asset management companies in the world. CNL also currently has two new investment funds in the registration process.

“The biggest impact I hope to have in ‘11 is to bring the team together so we are all collectively and collaboratively are pulling in the same direction,” says Sittema. “That’s the immediate impact. Then we are clearly focusing on our multi-manager, multi-product platform, bringing in world-class partners, and focusing on effective execution of all the products we’re rolling out.”

In 2011, CNL expects to continue to broaden and deepen its investment management and capital markets capabilities as it seeks to provide investors with innovative offerings designed to help them meet a variety of investment goals. CNL Financial Group will continue to be managed by an executive committee that includes Seneff and Sittema, along with Vice Chairman Bob Bourne, General Counsel Tim Manor, CFO Tracy Schmidt and President of CNL Capital Markets Tim Seneff.