Board & Leadership

Ixchell Duarte is a seasoned Latina executive with over 30 years of public company experience leading financial strategy, debt financings, public company reporting and M&A strategies/integrations for various public companies. Ms. Duarte has in depth, financial leadership and corporate governance experience and meets the SEC definition of a “financial expert” for service on public company audit committees. Ms. Duarte has over 15 years of real-life boardroom experience and has extensive experience in the full life cycle of companies, including initial registration statements, IPOs, M&A, merger integrations, liquidation and dissolution of companies.

Ms. Duarte currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of ICD Strategic Advisors, LLC. Previously, Ms. Duarte served as Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Senior Vice President of CNL Healthcare Properties, Inc., a $2 billion public, non-traded real estate investment trust (REIT). As a collaborative, key member of the leadership team, Ms. Duarte is a voting member of the company’s investment committee and the cybersecurity committee, presents strategic and financial updates to its board of directors and audit committee. Ms. Duarte leads budgeting and financial strategy, treasury, debt financings, portfolio reporting, accounting, financial reporting to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), tax, internal audit and Sarbanes Oxley Act compliance. She leads all relationships with lenders and external auditors.

Over the last 15 years, Ms. Duarte has served as a named executive officer of six separate CNL-sponsored public REITs and served as an officer of the Advisor of two public business development companies (BDCs) with $15 billion in combined assets under management and $1.7 billion in combined annual revenues. Ms. Duarte effectively established the reporting and compliance infrastructure for these eight public companies which invested in real estate assets of franchised restaurants, office and industrial, multi-family, attractions, hotels, golf courses, marinas, medical office buildings and seniors housing communities and provided loans to mid-sized companies. As an officer of these separate public companies, she presented at board and audit committee meetings, oversaw press releases, proxy statements and led the relationship with the respective audit committee chairs and external auditors (Big 4 accounting firms).

During her career, Ms. Duarte has led the accounting and integration of five separate mergers with $8 billion in combined assets under management (including an internalization of the management team). Ms. Duarte led the registration process that merged 20 public partnerships and REITs to create Trustreet Properties, Inc, a $3 billion publicly traded REIT (NYSE:TSY). Following the sale of Trustreet to GE Capital, as controller at GE Capital – Franchise Finance, she oversaw $12 billion in assets (loan and lease portfolio) and led the Finance migration of a $9 billion loan portfolio to a new loan servicing system.

Ms. Duarte began her career as an auditor in public accounting and held the role of audit manager in the Orlando, Florida, office of Coopers & Lybrand and previously served on the audit staff in the New York office of KPMG.

Ms. Duarte is a philanthropist in her community and an active community leader. Ms. Duarte serves as national board treasurer and finance/audit committee chair for ALPFA, the largest Latinx professional organization in the country. Ms. Duarte serves on the board and finance committee of Junior Achievement of Central Florida, serves on the board of the Junior Achievement Foundation of Central Florida and previously served as treasurer and finance/audit committee chair of the Hispanic Heritage Scholarship Fund of Metro Orlando.