Editor’s Note: McKnight’s Senior Living, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Home Care are profiling the McKnight’s 2024 Pinnacle Awards honorees daily in April and May. For additional McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards content, visit this page.
What does it feel like to give away $20 million? Mark Baiada, founder and chairman of the Board at BAYADA Home Health Care, knows because that’s what he did six years ago.
In November 2018, Baiada told his employees two shocking things: 1) The company would be transitioned to become a nonprofit organization and 2) he was divvying up among them $20 million.
The nonprofit transition, believed to be a first in the home healthcare industry, was done to protect the company from corporate raiders and to provide stability for the staff and patients. Today, the global BAYADA Home Health Care serves clients throughout the United States, Germany, India, Ireland, New Zealand and South Korea in the same tradition as when the company was founded in 1975 — by putting people first and hiring those who share a vision of providing a safe and comfortable home in which people can age with independence and dignity.
Baiada, who now serves as the board chairman, has earned numerous industry accolades and recognition, including the Visionary Leader Award from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Nursing. His zeal for assisting people did not end with retirement, as he has sponsored relief efforts in Kosovo and Haiti, as well as in the United States following Hurricane Katrina.
His lasting legacy at BAYADA Home Health Care is the enshrinement of the BAYADA Way, a high standard of compassion, excellence and reliability that drives both the company and each employee in everything they do.
- Along with his wife, Ann Claffey Baiada, he received the 2021 Lifetime of Service and Achievement Award from Chestnut Hill College.
- Baiada holds an MBA in management and marketing from Rutgers University Business School and a bachelor’s degree in business from Rutgers.
- He is the sole sponsor of the annual BAYADA Regatta, the world’s oldest and largest all-adaptive rowing event that attracts athletes with disabilities from around the globe.
The McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Senior Living, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Home Care. Honorees were recognized March 21 at a dinner and awards ceremony in Chicago. Omnicare was the Silver sponsor for the 2024 Pinnacle Awards program. Parker Health Group and Sentrics were event sponsors.
