People in the news, May 24 – Companies

Send your personnel news to Lois Bowers at [email protected].

Wesley Housing president and CEO announces retirement

Shelley S. Murphy, president and CEO of Wesley Housing in Alexandria, VA, has announced her intent to retire at the end of the year after a 15-year tenure leading the organization. 

Under Murphy’s leadership, the nonprofit affordable housing developer has grown its total assets from $107.8 million to $303.3 million, owned unit count from 1,139 to 1,834, and employee headcount from 40 to almost 100. In 2019, in collaboration with the board of directors, Wesley Housing adopted a five-year strategic plan designed to respond to the expanding and changing housing market in the greater Washington, DC, metropolitan region. Implementation of the plan is ahead of schedule.

Wesley Housing’s efforts have been recognized by peers and residents alike. Last month, Wesley Housing was selected by the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers as the Developer of the Year, having previously also received the same honor in 2017 and 2006. In 2021, Affordable Housing Finance named Wesley in its “Top 50 Affordable Housing Developers of 2020,” one of only nine nonprofits to make the list.

Admiral at the Lake welcomes R.J. Zielinski as CFO

R.J. Zielinski has been named chief financial officer at The Admiral at the Lake, a life care community on Lake Michigan.

Zielinski has 15 years of business management experience in the Chicago-area senior living market. At Admiral, a Kendal affiliate, he will oversee the financial operations as the community works toward its newly adopted strategic plan.

Most recently, Zielinski was CFO of Friendship Senior Options. Before that, he was a business manager at Lutheran Life Communities. 

Zielinksi earned an undergraduate degree in accounting from Marquette University and is a graduate of the LeadingAge Illinois Leadership Academy.

WesleyLife promotes Karie Kesterson-Gibson to director of clinical excellence

Karie Kesterson-Gibson, senior clinical quality specialist for WesleyLife, has been promoted to director of clinical excellence for the organization.

This new role combines elements of WesleyLife’s former vice president of clinical excellence and director of clinical quality roles to create a position that will oversee, direct and support programming designed to enhance care experiences for residents, clients and families.

Kesterson-Gibson has spent 11 years with WesleyLife. In her new role, she also will be responsible for maintaining and enhancing a planned, systematic, organization-wide approach to identifying, designing, measuring, prioritizing and monitoring all quality-management activities, including new processes and services. Her scope of work will also include education, training, hands-on participation/leadership and team development.

American House announces on-site leadership roles at newest community

American House Senior Living Communities has appointed its on-site leaders at American House Oak Park, its latest senior living community, set to open in August in Oak Park, IL.

Brad Jacobsen will be the community’s executive director. He comes to American House with 18 years of service to seniors, primarily as an executive director and project manager overseeing the development, staffing and ramping up of several senior living communities. Jacobsen has an undergraduate degree in business administration, management and operations from Messiah University.

Shannon Hopp will be community relations director and brings seven years of experience in the senior living industry to the role.

Erickson promotes Kristen Compton to executive director of Cedar Crest

Kristen Compton has been promoted to executive director of Cedar Crest in Pompton Plains, N.J., a community managed by Erickson Senior Living.

Compton’s numerous accomplishments at Cedar Crest include facilitating many of the community’s repositioning projects, driving seamless operations and helping the community in both resident satisfaction and employee engagement measures. Before joining the Cedar Crest leadership team, Compton held administrator positions at CareOne and Genesis Healthcare, helping both organizations achieve 5-star ratings from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Compton has an undergraduate degree in education from Towson University in Maryland and a master’s degree in theology and healing science from the New Mexico Theological Seminary in Santa Fe.

She succeeds Todd DeLaney, who recently transitioned to a new role as executive director of Avery Point, a new Erickson-managed community in Short Pump, VA, scheduled to open in the fall. 

Fox Hollow names new community relations director

Carey Gross has been appointed community relations director at Fox Hollow Residential Care, in Eugene, OR.

With almost a decade of professional experience in the healthcare marketing and community relations sectors, Gross will be responsible for establishing and building community relationships and understanding through dissemination of timely and relevant information, providing facility tours to interested parties, overseeing the move-in experience and logistics for new residents, and responding to inquiries.

Before joining the Fox Hollow team, Gross was a community relations director for another area organization. She has an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Erickson CEO appointed board chair for University of Maryland Medical System

R. Alan Butler, CEO of Erickson Senior Living, was elected chairperson of the University of Maryland Medical System in a vote at the regularly scheduled May board meeting.

Butler succeeds Chip DiPaula, who stepped down from the board in March. Butler was first appointed to the UMMS Board of Directors in 2014 and has served as chairperson of the Finance Committee since 2019. For the past two years, Butler also has served as a member of the board at the University of Maryland Medical Center, the system’s flagship academic hospital in downtown Baltimore.

Before becoming CEO of Erickson Senior Living in 2010, Butler spent 14 years as treasurer of Allegis Group, a talent management company. His career also includes various credit and lending positions at Bank of America and its predecessor banks from 1986 to 1996.

LeadingAge Illinois selects Elizabeth McLaren as new board chair

Elizabeth McLaren, vice president of reimbursement and community-based services for Covenant Living Communities and Services, is the new board chair at LeadingAge Illinois. 

She has served on the board since 2017 and previously was SNF cabinet president, treasurer and chair-elect. LeadingAge Illinois has almost 400 members across the state of Illinois.

McLaren has more than 20 years of experience in skilled nursing operations, home care operations, revenue enhancement, reimbursement and regulatory compliance and third-party receivables.

Atlantic Shores’ Jenny Maugeri named to Top 50 Women Leaders of Virginia list

Jenny Maugeri, executive director of Atlantic Shores Retirement Community, has been named one of “The Top 50 Women Leaders of Virginia for 2022” by Women We Admire.

Maugeri was appointed to her position in 2020 by the board of directors at Atlantic Shores and Life Care Services. She was tasked with leading Atlantic Shores through the pandemic while positioning the community to ensure financial growth and long-term stability. In the award announcement, Women We Admire cited Maugeri’s leadership for success in creating a well-organized, efficient and positive team-focused environment where employees enjoy working and residents want to live. 

American Healthcare REIT expands senior management team

American Healthcare REIT, based in Irvine, CA, welcomed two new senior leaders this month. 

Stephanie Keator joined as senior vice president of asset management. In her new role, Keator oversees all medical office buildings within the eastern region of the real estate investment trust’s portfolio. She joins the company from Ventas, where was director of asset management for the west region. Keator previously served in a similar capacity with Nationwide Health Properties prior to its merger with Ventas in 2011. In total, she has more than 26 years of experience in the healthcare real estate industry, with 14 years devoted to medical office building asset management.

James Kim joins American Healthcare REIT as senior vice president of tax from Ernst & Young Real Estate Group in Los Angeles, where he was a managing director. He has experience serving real estate companies covering REIT qualification and compliance issues, corporate, federal and state taxation matters and REIT tax planning and structuring, including REIT buy- and sell-side due diligence. Kim previously served in similar roles with BDO USA and Deloitte Tax. His professional career spans more than 19 years. In his new role with American Healthcare REIT, Kim oversees the company’s overall tax planning, structuring and compliance.

Cambridge reflects on CEO’s passion for seniors housing

Cambridge Realty Capital’s founder and CEO, Jeffrey Davis, recently died unexpectedly. Amid their grief, however, the Cambridge staff has pledged to remain committed to providing the same high level of customer service that Davis insisted upon during his more than 35 years as Cambridge’s steward.

Davis began his career in commercial real estate finance. Within a few years of launching Cambridge Realty Capital in 1983, he decided to shift the company’s focus to the finance of senior housing.

Signature Bank launches new business line, appoints healthcare banking and finance team

New York-based Signature Bank has launched a new business line with the appointment of a nine-person healthcare banking and finance team. The new private client banking team will provide lending services while garnering deposits to clients within the healthcare arena. They will serve for-profit and nonprofit companies, including owners and operators of senior living communities and skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities.

Leading the team is Matthew T. Huber, recently named senior vice president and managing group director. He will oversee all aspects of the team, including managing its pipeline and banking activities and building a healthcare-related portfolio spanning both lending and deposit clients. Huber brings 25 years of healthcare banking and finance experience to his new role.

The team also includes:

• Walter Unangst, senior vice president and group director;
• Ken Jamison, senior vice president and group director;
• Patricia Quint, senior vice president and group director;
• Ryan Zyskowski, vice president and relationship manager;
• Liam Ryan, a vice president and loan portfolio manager; and
• Kristin Maier, assistant vice president and associate loan portfolio manager.

Additional appointments to the team include Doreen Schafer, vice president and loan administration manager, and Eric Halpern, senior vice president and group director.

Former Sunrise CEO Chris Winkle joins CarePredict board

Former Sunrise Senior Living CEO Chris Winkle has joined the board of Fort Lauderdale, FL-based digital health company CarePredict. Winkle, a seasoned leader with more than 20 years of experience growing businesses in the senior living and healthcare industries, will help guide the company’s growth.

“Chris joins us at an exciting time as we continue to rapidly expand our presence in senior living,” CarePredict CEO and founder Satish Movva said in a statement, 

Winkle was with Sunrise for more than seven years, having joined the organization as chief operating officer in 2013 and becoming CEO in 2014. Under his leadership, Sunrise restarted its development pipeline, completed several large acquisitions, introduced technology to enhance resident care delivery and invested in ancillary organizations as additional revenue growth streams. The company announced that he would be leaving in late 2020.

Before joining Sunrise, Winkle was CEO of MedQuest, an operator of independent, fixed-site, outpatient diagnostic imaging centers in the United States, for eight years. Prior to that, he was president and CEO for Mariner Health Care, which operated assisted living communities, skilled nursing facilities and long-term acute care hospitals. He also formerly was chief operating officer at Integrated Health Services. Earlier in his career, he held management positions within specialty and rehabilitation hospitals.

Winkle also is on the board of Direct Supply. Until recently, he served on the Argentum board, too.

Send your personnel news to Lois Bowers at [email protected]. High-quality color headshots welcome but not required.