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Stephen Fetyko announced as CEO of newly affiliated United Methodist Retirement Communities and Porter Hills
Stephen Fetyko has been named president and CEO of United Methodist Retirement Communities and Porter Hills, which formally affiliated March 1.
The organizations said the decision came after 18 months of “thoughtful deliberation and careful review” by a search committee made up of UMRC and Porter Hills board members. Fetyko had been serving as interim CEO since the affiliation was finalized.
“We intentionally waited until the formal affiliation of UMRC and Porter Hills took place on March 1 so that both organizations would have input into the important choice for president and CEO,” said John Nixon III, UMRC board chair. “As a result, our shared decision allows us to move toward a future that is bright with promise for our organizations and the individuals and families we serve.”
Former UMRC President and CEO John Thorhauer had been serving as president/chief strategy officer since the affiliation and will continue in his role as chief strategy officer until his retirement later this year, according to the organizations.
Fetyko’s career has spanned more than 20 years, with roles in acute healthcare, auditing, senior housing and health service management.
Before his brief tenure as interim CEO, he had been vice president and chief financial officer of UMRC since 2014. Before joining UMRC, Fetyko was senior vice president and CFO at Memorial Healthcare in Owosso, MI, and served in various finance management roles at the University of Michigan Health System. He also was an auditor focused on the senior living and nonprofit sectors with the firm Plante Moran.
Fetyko is a member of the boards of the United Methodist Association, LeadingAge Michigan, Senior Care Resources, Thome PACE, Huron Valley PACE and the Chelsea Chamber of Commerce. He has an undergraduate degree in business administration and a master’s degree in public administration with a healthcare administration concentration from Eastern Michigan University.
Tom DeRosa adds chairman of the board to roles at Welltower
Thomas J. DeRosa, chief executive officer of real estate investment trust Welltower, was appointed to the additional position of chairman of the board on May 2.
DeRosa has been a member of the board since 2004 and CEO since April 2014. As chairman, he succeeds Jeffrey H. Donahue, who has been designated as the board’s independent lead director. Donahue served as the non-executive chairman of the board since April 2014 and previously served as the independent lead director.
DeRosa’s experience includes service as vice chairman and chief financial officer of The Rouse Company and his leadership roles at Deutsche Bank and Alex. Brown & Sons.
He also has public company board experience from his service on the board of Empire State Realty Trust.
Neal Lail appointed chief operating officer at Affinity Living Group
Neal Lail has been appointed chief operating officer of Hickory, NC-based Affinity Living Group.
Lail joined the company as vice president of sales and marketing in May 2016, and he was promoted to chief marketing officer in 2018. In this role, he oversaw all aspects of marketing, sales and call center operations as well as public relations and communications, customer service and retention, and managed care / innovative pay systems.
Lail has a 30-year history in the senior living and care industry. Before joining Affinity Living Group, he held positions with acute care, post-acute care, hospice care, and Medicare Advantage payer organizations.
Jeffrey Leer appointed EVP, CFO and treasurer at Five Star
Jeffrey C. Leer has been appointed as executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer at Newton, MA-based Five Star Senior Living, effective June 1. He will succeed Richard A. Doyle Jr. in the roles.
Leer joined The RMR Group, which provides management services to Five Star and other companies, in 2013. He currently is CFO and treasurer of Office Properties Income Trust and senior vice president of RMR, where he has been responsible for the day-to-day oversight of the accounting and finance support functions of RMR and various of its managed companies. Previously, Leer served in various RMR accounting leadership functions, with a primary focus on operations.
Before joining RMR, Leer held accounting and finance positions at several multi-national public companies, including Dell Technologies, Whole Foods Market and Boston Scientific as well as practiced for several years in public accounting. Leer is a certified public accountant.
Doyle is stepping down effective May 31. To ensure a smooth transition, Doyle’s separation agreement provides that he will remain a non-officer employee of Five Star and RMR after May 31 and until Dec. 31.
Doyle has been with Five Star most recently since 2016 and previously served as CFO and treasurer of Senior Housing Properties Trust, to which RMR also provided management services, from 2007 to 2016.
Marcus Covar promoted to executive vice president at Atlas Senior Living
Marcus Covar has been promoted from vice president of operations to executive vice president at Birmingham, AL-based Atlas Senior Living. He will oversee and support all company operations.
Covar has been a part of Atlas Senior Living since its inception in 2013, but he began his career in senior living in 2007 as a sales and marketing manager. Other previous positions include executive director and regional transition executive director, a role that included the on-boarding of new executive directors at communities as they were acquired.
Sheila Madigan promoted to SVP of sales and marketing at Affinity Living Group
Sheila Madigan has been promoted to senior vice president of sales and marketing at Hickory, NC-based Affinity Living Group.
Madigan joined Affinity Living Group in February 2016. She has three decades of sales experience, the last 16 of which were in senior housing at the regional and national levels.
Madigan is licensed in North Carolina as an assisted living administrator and a preceptor for North Carolina administrators-in-training.
Frank Vedder joins LCS as senior vice president, chief information officer
Frank Vedder has joined Des Moines, IA-based LCS as senior vice president, chief information officer.
Vedder spent 16 years of his career with Berkley Technology Services, a central technology provider for the global Fortune 500 insurance entity WR Berkley Corp. There, he led technology strategy for BTS, partnering with the WR Berkley companies to support creating more than 30 autonomous business units.
Overall, Vedder has 22 years of experience in the information technology sector.
David B. Wean promoted to SVP of operations and facilities at Springpoint Senior Living
David B. Wean has been promoted to senior vice president of operations and facilities of Wall Township, NJ-based Springpoint Senior Living.
Wean has worked in the field of senior living for more than 30 years, including in positions at Springpoint including executive director at Crestwood Manor, interim executive director at Stonebridge at Montgomery, interim executive director at The Atrium of Navesink Harbor, and senior executive director and then vice president of facilities and asset management.
Wean earned an undergraduate degree with honors from McDaniel College in Maryland. He is a licensed assisted living administrator.
Kristen Ahrens appointed principal–business development at Capitol Seniors Housing
Kristen Ahrens has been appointed principal–business development at Washington, DC-based senior living investment and development firm Capitol Seniors Housing.
With more than two decades of senior living and finance experience, Ahrens has managed transactions for senior living clients across the U.S. and Canada.
Before joining Capitol Seniors Housing, Ahrens was managing director with Capital One Healthcare (previously GE Healthcare Financial Services). While at GE, she was senior vice president and vice president for more than 10 years. Before joining GE, Ahrens was vice president of development at GenSpring Family Offices.
Ahrens began her career at Ernst & Young, after which she was an analyst at Ocwen Financial. She later was a senior associate at Heller Financial.
She earned an undergraduate degree in accounting and an MBA from the University of Florida.
Ayesha Menon and Edward Cheung join Welltower as SVPs of investments
Ayesha Menon and Edward Cheung have joined Welltower as senior vice presidents of investments. Both will report to Shankh Mitra, executive vice president and chief investment officer.
Menon will direct strategic investments and platform alignments across the portfolio, and Cheung will oversee the company’s Canadian portfolio and will direct investments in seniors housing and medical office segments across North America.
Menon joins the real estate investment trust from Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet company, where she served as director of real estate investments. In this role, she oversaw real estate finance operations and worked with the firm’s innovation leads to facilitate technology innovations in real estate and infrastructure used in the development of smart cities and buildings.
Before her time at Sidewalk Labs, was a principal at Wheelock Street Capital, where she held various responsibilities across all aspects of the investment cycle, particularly involving single and multi-family housing, affordable housing and other real estate asset classes.
Menon has an MBA from Stanford University and graduated from Princeton University with an undergraduate degree in civil engineering.
Cheung joins the REIT from BFIN, a Brookfield company, where he was a managing partner. At BFIN, he managed structured finance advisory and the merger and acquisitions service lines in the United States and Canada, and he led various transactions in the public and private real estate markets.
Cheung has an MBA from INSEAD and graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in systems design engineering.
Angelia Brigance named executive director at Harbour Pointe Senior Living
Angelia Brigance has been named executive director at Harbour Pointe Senior Living, an Integral Senior Living community in Mukilteo, WA, that specializes in independent living, assisted living, memory care and respite care.
Before joining the Harbour Pointe family, Brigance was the executive director for multiple senior living communities.
Benchmark founder Tom Grape to be honored with inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from Mass-ALA
Tom Grape, founder, chairman and CEO of Benchmark Senior Living, on May 14 will receive the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Assisted Living Association for his 30-plus year career in the industry.
“Tom has been instrumental in founding, shaping and growing the assisted living industry in Massachusetts and nationwide, enriching the lives of seniors and creating an overwhelmingly positive economic impact,” said Brian Doherty, president and CEO of Mass-ALA. “He is widely recognized as one of the most influential executives in the industry today.”
In 1993, Grape helped write the legislation for assisted living in Massachusetts, and he subsequently helped co-found several industry organizations, including Mass-ALA, according to Benchmark.
Grape founded Waltham, MA-based Benchmark in 1997, and it now is one of the Northeast’s largest senior living providers, with 58 communities in eight states. Nationally, the company ranked No. 24 on Argentum’s 2018 list of largest senior living providers, No. 30 on the American Seniors Housing Association’s 2018 list of largest senior living operators, and No. 33 on ASHA’s 2018 list of largest senior living owners.
In 2017, Grape was tapped by Gov. Charlie Baker to serve on the first-ever Governor’s Council to Address Aging in Massachusetts. In 2018, Baker appointed him to participate in the Massachusetts Healthcare Collaborative, a convening group of healthcare leaders across government, educational institutions, industry and public organizations.
Plante Moran Living welcomes four new staff members
Senior living development consulting firm Plante Moran Living Forward has four new staff members. Joining the senior living development team from PMLF affiliates are Brent Cousino, Atasi Bagchi, LEED AP, and Kelly Grinter, and Kyle DeHenau, LEED AP, also has joined the company.
Cousino, a retired Plante Moran partner and former CPA, has been a leader in the firm since 1997, when he led the merger of a CPA firm he co-founded, NCOT Accounting & Consulting, with Plante Moran.
He helped build Plante Moran’s national senior living capital projects practice and co-founded what has become PMLF. Since retiring from the Plante Moran partnership in 2012, he founded a private advisory firm focused on the healthcare industry.
At PMLF now, Cousino’s role will be to connect senior living communities with the firm’s resources to help them expand their enterprises through concept development, project planning and feasibility services, and related financing for major capital investments.
DeHenau and Bagchi are project managers. They will help clients plan and manage capital projects from concept to completion. DeHenau, a senior consultant, will serve clients from the Chicago office. Atasi, a vice president, works out of the Southfield, MI, office.
DeHenau has 10 years of experience working on both small and large projects in a variety of industries, including healthcare. Most recently, he worked at Pepper Construction in Chicago. He also formerly worked at Barton Malow both in Chicago and Southfield, MI.
DeHenau has two undergraduate degrees, one in civil engineering and one in architecture, from Lawrence Technological University.
Atasi has been with PMLF’s affiliated commercial real estate consulting entity, Plante Moran Cresa, for several years. There, she spent the majority of her time on projects in downtown Detroit. She has experience in a variety of industries.
Atasi graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with an undergraduate degree in civil and environmental engineering and a Master of Science degree in engineering and construction management.
Grinter joins the Plane Moran Moving Forward team from Plante Moran’s tax practice, where she served both for-profit and not-for-profit clients in the real estate, service and healthcare industries.
Grinter, as a consultant, will focus primarily on financial and market feasibility analysis, helping clients through the planning stages of predevelopment.
She has an undergraduate degree in accounting from the University of Dayton.
Timothy J. Naughton resigns as Welltower director
Timothy J. Naughton has resigned as an independent director of real estate investment trust Welltower, effective May 2, according to a supplement to the proxy statement for the May 2 annual shareholders meeting filed May 1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A director since 2013, Naughton was chairman of Welltower’s investment committee and a member of Welltower’s compensation and executive committees.
Naughton has 30 years of experience in the REIT and commercial real estate sectors. At AvalonBay Communities, a publicly traded REIT focused on developing, redeveloping, acquiring and managing apartment communities, he has been a director since 2005, president since February 2005, CEO since January 2012 and chairman since May 2013. He has worked in a variety of other capacities with AvalonBay Communities or its predecessors since 1989.
Additionally, Naughton is chairman of the nominating and corporate governance committee of Park Hotels & Resorts Inc. and a member of the executive committee of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts.
Naughton has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Peter L. Rhein and Joseph P. Sullivan retire from HCP board
Peter L. Rhein and Joseph P. Sullivan retired from HCP’s Board of Directors at the real estate investment trust’s annual meeting April 25.
They had been members of the board since 1985 and 2004, respectively. Their departure from the board is due to HCP’s mandatory retirement age for directors. “We are thankful for their many contributions to HCP,” HCP President and CEO Tom Herzog said Thursday during HCP’s first-quarter earnings call. “I personally feel very fortunate to have benefited from the prospective and sage advice, and I will truly miss having them on our board.”
Send personnel news to Senior Editor Lois A. Bowers. Please include a high-quality color photo.
