After serving as chief operating officer at Senior Lifestyle for just over a year, Lisa Fordyce is no longer with the Chicago-based provider.
Fordyce’s resignation is effective as of April 4, Senior Lifestyle confirmed to Senior Housing News. The company’s current Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Justin Robins will serve as Interim COO.
“This was a very difficult decision given the many colleagues that joined me at [Senior Lifestyle] and that I have worked with for several years in two and three companies,” Fordyce told SHN. “It was a necessary one for family matters that needed for me to be in Ohio.”
Senior Lifestyle President and CEO Jon DeLuca commented on the departure in an emailed statement made available to SHN.
“We are very appreciative of the contributions Lisa made to the operating team during her tenure at Senior Lifestyle,” DeLuca said. “At the same time, we are pleased to see Justin step into a new role on an interim basis and are confident his leadership will enable us to continue to provide best in class services to our residents and their families.”
The family-owned company is one of the largest providers nationally, operating 204 communities as of 2016.
After 26 years in senior housing and health care, Fordyce currently is taking time to “explore and strategize” before determining what opportunity to pursue next, she told SHN.
Fordyce stepped into the COO role in February 2016, after nearly two years with Senior Lifestyle as senior vice president of operations. Prior to that, she was vice president of operations with Emeritus Corp., leading its Midwest division of 14 states for nearly a decade.
A licensed practical nurse, Fordyce’s career in the industry began as a caregiver, and she credited that with giving her an first-hand knowledge of what frontline staff encounter on a daily basis.
“I can personally relate to an assisted living director or a community director, because I’ve walked in their shoes,” she told SHN in March 2016. Her priorities at the time were to put leadership development plans in place and work with community-level management to drive best-in-class care.
Other senior housing executives also recently have left the C-Suite after a relatively short stint with a company.
Shamim Wu left memory care giant Silverado in October 2016, less than a year after becoming president and COO. Last month, Justin Hutchens announced he would be leaving HCP Inc. (NYSE: HCP), just four months after becoming president of the real estate investment trust. And today, HCP announced that Kai Hsiao is stepping down as executive vice president of senior housing asset management, less than a year after he joined the company.
Written by Tim Mullaney
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