Immanuel CEO Eric Gurley is retiring in mid-2026, starting a seek for a brand new prime chief on the senior dwelling nonprofit.
Gurley, who rose to the CEO position at Immanuel in 2009, is slated to step down in June 2026. With the announcement, the nonprofit’s board of administrators is formally looking for the group’s subsequent president and CEO.
Serving to Immanuel by way of a divestiture of its acute care and skilling nursing phase in 2012 from Catholic Well being Initiatives and pivoting to senior dwelling is Gurley’s best achievement as CEO and president, he advised Senior Housing Information.
“It was a reasonably large choice and we acknowledged that by way of this and we rapidly went from a small group right into a regional group able to serving extra individuals,” Gurley advised SHN. “A part of my cost right here was to be progressive and to fulfill the wants of the group.”
Gurley has steered the group by way of a interval of change and innovation, to not point out the powerful days of the Covid-19 pandemic 5 years in the past.
Since his time with the group, Immanuel has reworked from a $25 million group serving 900 residents right into a regional senior dwelling operator producing $200 million yearly by way of varied senior dwelling service traces.
Since his time as CEO, Immanuel has grown including eight communities in Nebraska and Iowa, together with extra neighborhoods in different communities. In the present day, the group serves practically 2,900 older adults with 1,700 staff throughout 18 communities and three Program of All-Inclusive Look after the Aged (PACE) facilities.
“These adjustments weren’t so simple as simply add-water-and-mix,” Gurley stated. “There was lots of battle and challenges that we overcame collectively and we needed to climate lots of storms and there was lots of change that was required to get the place we’re right this moment.”
Know-how integration and innovation “performed an enormous position” in facilitating the various adjustments Immanuel made since 2009. However Gurley cautioned operators to not overextend their sources within the identify of merely implementing the newest and best know-how platforms. He referred to as synthetic intelligence (AI) “extremely thrilling” for the trade’s future, however careworn that service should stay the guideline for operators as they embark on this new AI-infused actuality.
In trying again on his profession, Gurley feels that his management fashion mirrored “humility and repair,” aiming to make choices that improved the lives of older adults served by way of the Immanuel system of communities, according to the group’s faith-based affiliation.
Gurley hopes that the following chief for Immanuel may also embody these facets of humility and repair, calling Immanuel’s success dependent upon a “relay race” of CEOs and prime leaders over the course of the group’s 135-year historical past.
“Be conscious not to herald somebody who thinks it’s all about themselves,” Gurley urged. “I’ve led this group for 17 years, but it surely isn’t about me. I ran my leg, my job is handy the baton to the following chief. I hope the main target stays on that.”
He additionally stated he was happy with spending time in communities and serving to residents type bonds with one another and the broader world, recalling fond recollections of residents he met over time.
Gurley’s message to the group’s subsequent CEO and president is to take heed of the truth that the group’s previous success, and mirror on what it took to attain it.
