AdCare Hires Senior Housing, REIT Veteran McBride as New CEO

Months after the company announced its transition out of senior housing operations, AdCare Health Systems, Inc. (NYSE MKT: ADK) has hired senior housing and REIT veteran William “Bill” McBride III as president and CEO, effective immediately.

McBride — who previously served as CEO of Assisted Living Concepts (now Enlivant) and as President, COO and director of LTC Properties — steps out of retirement to assume the position at AdCare.

Monday’s announcement follows some turbulence in the company’s recent past, including accounting errors that led to AdCare’s former CFO Martin Brew resigning last year, its CEO Boyd Gentry resigning in May this year and, most recently, its exit from senior housing operations.

But McBride is expected to help “further our transition from an owner and operating company to an owner and leasing company,” said David Tenwick, AdCare’s chairman and interim CEO, in a statement.

McBride brings to the position more than 30 years of health care, financing, real estate and corporate leadership experience. He retired as chairman and CEO of Assisted Living Concepts, now Enlivant, in 2000. There, he completed the first IPO of a public assisted living company, expanded the company from four to 170 properties and financed the company’s growth through sales-leaseback and mortgage financing transactions.

Prior to his tenure at ALC, he served as president, COO and director of LTC Properties, a real estate investment trust (REIT), which he co-founded in 1992. While there, he completed the largest REIT IPO at the time and completed more than $500 million in acquisitions and public financings, two securitization transactions, while increasing the company’s cash flow and dividends per share by more than 70%.

McBride began his career as a health care consultant with Arthur Young, where he focused primarily on Medicare and Medicaid revenue enhancement strategies for nursing homes and hospitals. He then parlayed this experience into a leadership position at Beverly Enterprises, where he served as vice president and controller of the largest operator of nursing homes in the United States.

He has also served on the Board of Directors and as chairman of the Financing Committee of Malan Realty Properties, a publicly listed commercial property REIT.

In connection with his appointment as AdCare’s president and CEO, McBride received a 10-year warrant to purchase 300,000 shares of AdCare’s common stock with an exercise price of $4.49 per share. One-third of the shares underlying the warrant will vest on each of October 10, 2015, October 10, 2016 and October 10, 2017, with the vesting of the warrant accelerating upon termination of McBride’s employment (other than a termination by AdCare for cause or by McBride without good reason).

Written by Emily Study