Team

Founder & President

George Bravante Business Profile Picture

George R. Bravante Jr.

Founder & President

George has spent the last 20 years building a vertically integrated farming business. In the early 1990’s he started with a small vineyard and winery development in the Napa Valley of California. This initial taste of farming ignited a new passion for agriculture and investing in the San Joaquin Valley.

In the past 20 years Bravante Farm Capital has acquired over $175 million in agricultural assets including, citrus, table grapes, wine grapes, stone fruit and pistachios.

Before founding Bravante Farm Capital, He spent 10 years in the real estate private equity business as the President of Colony Advisors, Inc. Prior to Colony George was the President of American Real Estate Group where he led the managed liquidation of $15 billion in real estate assets of the then failed American Savings Bank. 

While at Colony in the early 1990's, George acquired, managed and sold at huge profits a roughly $2 billion portfolio of multi-family apartment buildings and while running the American Real Estate Group, he managed a multi-family portfolio of $3 billion. On his own account, George has owned and sold apartments for roughly $40 million.

Before his time in private equity, he worked for Ernst & Young. He graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting.

George currently serves on the board of directors of Sabre Corporation and of the KBS Growth & Income REIT. 

Team

Rodney Aguiar profile picture

Rodney Aguiar

Chief Financial Officer

Rodney grew up on a dairy farm in Tulare, California and has been around farming most of his life. He graduated from California State University, Fresno in 1992 and went to work for Ernst & Young and earned his Certified Public Accountant license in 1999.

He has worked with George Bravante since 1998, initially as a Controller for a housing company. He has been with Bravante Farming Companies since 2008 starting as the Controller and is now the CFO and COO working both on the accounting side and the farming side.

Boomer Profile Picture

Donald "Boomer" Hogoboom

Director of Investor Relations

Donald "Boomer" Hogoboom is a seasoned real estate investor with decades of experience acquiring, renovating, and selling real estate assets in North Los Angeles County.  Boomer works with high net worth individuals and family offices in guiding them through their investment goals.

Previously, Mr. Hogoboom served as Senior Vice President, Acquisitions of an affiliate of the Koll Company headquartered in Newport Beach, California.  Koll is a large international, diversified real estate company with development and investment activities across all types of real estate.

Mr. Hogoboom received a BSBA in Finance from the University of Denver, engaged in post-graduate studies at Rutgers University, and received an MBA from Thunderbird Graduate School in Phoenix, AZ.

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Richard Sullivan

Director of Farming Operations

Rich has worked in the agricultural industry for 16 years, spanning farm management, acquisitions, facility management, and business development farm plans.  In addition to managing the day-to-day farming and field operations, he plays a critical role in our due diligence and underwriting process for prospective acquisitions.

Rich graduated from Fresno State University with a degree in Plant Sciences and holds both PCA and QAL certificates with the state of California. 

Michelle Hunt Profile Picture

Michelle Hunt

Director of Marketing

A native of East Tennessee, Michelle grew up in a multi-generation farming family with deep ties to the land, which has nurtured her lifelong passion for large scale home gardening and career pursuits close to the land.  Her passion for agriculture combined with her IT, sales, and marketing backgrounds give a unique perspective and a wide range of skill to her role as Marketing Director for Bravante Farm Capital.    She received a BA in English and Communications from Appalachian State and an MS in Instructional Systems Design from Clemson.  Prior to joining our team, Michelle worked in the telecom industry as IT Director for TrinTel in Dallas, where she helped lead a fast-track startup in the wireless industry, with Bravante Vineyards in California as GM on site during the construction phase of the winery operations, and then as Sales & Marketing Director for the winery.  She is also the current Marketing lead for Bravante Citrus Direct, the direct-to-consumer arm of Bravante Produced in Reedley, CA.

Tom C profile picture

Tom Cucinotta

Director of Investment Analysis

Tom is a seasoned finance professional with experience in banking, longevity-based assets, and real estate investing.  His growing appreciation for farming comes from working with George and team on agricultural investments in the San Joaquin Valley since 2017.

Tom holds a BA in Business Administration from Auburn University and a MBA from the Paul Merage School at the University of California – Irvine.  He is originally from New England but has lived in the Deep South, Mid-Atlantic, California and Midwest.

Advisory Board

Matt Bravante

Matt Bravante

Matthew grew up in the family business, serving various roles across the company. He currently works as a research analyst for BloombergNEF, where he has helped build research products in the agricultural and energy space.

 

At Bravante Farm Capital, Matthew provides long-term strategic advice which helps us optimize our capital deployment. Matthew graduated with a bachelor's degree in business and environmental studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master's degree in energy economics from Universita Bocconi in Milan, Italy.

Dr. Adam Gower profile picture

Adam Gower Ph.D.

Adam is the country's foremost expert on real estate crowdfunding and is employed by Bravante Farm Capital for his marketing, crowdfunding, and strategic expertise. He has been active in real estate investment and finance for over 35 years and has been involved in excess of $1.5 billion of transactions throughout his career.

 

Adam ran the real estate division of Universal Studios in Asia Pacific during the 1990's, head up the Special Assets Group at East West Bank during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2010 after which he ran a  $200MM distressed fund at Gaw Capital and worked on a $7 billion portfolio of real estate collateralized loans at Colony capital.

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