Watermark Retirement Communities has employed a brand new Chief Working Officer (COO) as the corporate prepares for brand spanking new progress in 2025.
Jeff Slichta, a former government with Dawn Senior Residing and Expertise Senior Residing, will take over as COO beginning subsequent week to succeed Karen Mlawsky, who’s stepping down from the COO position to “pursue new pursuits,” the corporate introduced on Thursday.
As soon as within the position, Slichta will start executing on the corporate’s 2025 enterprise plans, aiming to realize “key efficiency indicators for every neighborhood and in combination for the enterprise,” Troy Hollar, Watermark Retirement Communities Nationwide Director of Advertising and marketing and Gross sales advised Senior Housing Information on Thursday.
Slichta joins Watermark having most just lately served because the COO for Expertise Senior Residing, a fast-growing senior dwelling operator by which Slichta performed an essential position within the firm’s early beginnings. He particularly helped arrange the corporate’s working system, placing the group on a path for progress, Watermark’s announcement famous.
Previous to Watermark and Expertise, Slichta was the senior vp of operations for Dawn Senior dwelling with operations oversight for 5 areas and 145 communities throughout 17 states and Canada.
“Mr. Slichta’s time at different operators has bolstered for him the prevailing significance of tradition, individuals, and relationships. If you happen to take nice care of your individuals, they’ll take nice care of your residents, which is able to in flip take excellent care of your companions and traders,” Hollar wrote in an emailed assertion to SHN.
Priorities in operations for Watermark span from programming and care to eating and enhancing staffing, Hollar added, together with new progress with a “robust pipeline” of recent developments which are “teed up however awaiting a shift within the capital markets” previous to work beginning.
The corporate anticipates beginning building on two to a few initiatives in 2025, whereas additionally evaluating new acquisition and administration alternatives, Hollar mentioned within the assertion.
In SHN protection earlier this yr, Watermark Chief Funding Officer Bryan Schachter mentioned these initiatives would “proceed to align with our technique of higher-end and bigger scale unbiased dwelling, assisted dwelling and reminiscence care initiatives in both main or secondary markets.”
In recent times, Watermark has centered on constructing its information and analytics platform to optimize operations and drive efficiency; evolving its regional administration assist and opened new communities with intergenerational and luxurious parts. The corporate additionally just lately launched the BrainCafe to enhance reminiscence care programming in partnership with the College of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
