Erickson Senior Living has named Christian Sweetser as CFO, effective Jan. 31, 2022.
Most recently, Sweetser has been serving as CFO of Irvine, California-based memory care pioneer Silverado. Prior to joining Silverado in 2016, he was a vice president at Toledo, Ohio-based real estate investment trust Welltower (NYSE: WELL).
Catonsville, Maryland-based Erickson — known for its continuing care retirement communities — is one of the largest senior living providers in the United States by unit count, at No. 7 on Argentum’s 2021 rankings. The organization currently is pursuing about $3 billion worth of expansion projects, involving the development of new communities and the expansion of existing campuses.
At Erickson, Sweetser will succeed Todd Matthiesen, who is transitioning from CFO to lead a newly formed Business Strategy and Development team, according to an internal memo shared with Senior Housing News.
Silverado has named SVP of Accounting and Finance Carmin Tomassi as interim CFO.
“Representing Silverado’s industry-leading brand, Christian navigated many complex negotiations that helped shape our company today,” Silverado CEO Loren Shook wrote in a Nov. 30 memo. “We are grateful for his leadership and wish his family well during the many adventures in this next chapter of their lives.”
Sweetser’s tenure with Silverado came during a time of reinvention for the company, which pivoted after Welltower transitioned 20 communities to a different operator in 2019.
“When Steve [Winner] and Jim [Smith] and I started the company, we owned everything and/or had long-term leases, and now going forward we’re back to owning everything or having long-term leases, where we can control our destiny,” Shook told SHN in August 2019, as the company opened a newly developed community in Milwaukee.
Silverado has been pursuing ground-up development in various markets, with the support of $45 million in backing from Artemis Real Estate Partners, secured in 2018.
Silverado posted its most profitable performance in company history during Sweetser’s time in leadership, according to Erickson’s announcement of his hire.
Sweetser has a passion for harnessing data to drive operations and improve the resident and associate experience, he told SHN in a 2019 interview for the Bottom Line series.
“You have to make it real for people and connect it to what they do on a daily basis … as they’re making decisions,” he said. “That’s the really exciting part. You get people energized and they carry it into the interactions they have with your customers.”
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