[Updated] Sonida Senior Living CEO Lody to Step Down, Transition Leadership to COO Ribar

Three years ago, Sonida Senior Living (NYSE: SNDA) leader Kim Lody laid out a turnaround plan to help position the company for long-term success. With those efforts largely in the rearview mirror, she is passing the torch.

Lody on Thursday announced she is stepping down from her post as CEO, with current COO Brandon Ribar slated to lead the company as its new CEO.

Lody, who joined Sonida approximately eight years ago and ascended to the CEO role in 2019, will continue to work in her role through Sept. 2 to oversee the transition to Ribar’s leadership, the company announced Thursday.

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As Ribar steps into the leadership role, he sees “positive energy” and excitement throughout the company as it prepares for its next chapter.

“Kim and I share a passion for building companies around great people and great teams, and so we’ve seen that play out over the past couple of years,” Ribar told Senior Housing News Thursday. “And that’s what I think gives us the optimism.”

‘Laser focus’ on improvement

During her time at Sonida, Lody undertook a three-year turnaround plan — dubbed “stabilize, invest, nurture and grow,” or SING — and ultimately overhauled the operator’s operations and resident programming; exited leases on certain unprofitable assets and helped to reshape the company’s leadership. She also led the company through its rebranding from Capital Senior Living to Sonida.

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And Ribar said he plans to build on those efforts ahead and continue the momentum that Lody set as CEO.

“[We will] focus on our people, our continued focus on delivering a great product for our residents and for their family members, and how we’re going to build the path to operational performance that is consistent with the goals that we’ve laid out here in the recent six to 12 months.”

With the SING initiative behind it,Ribar said the company is now looking to continue on to its next evolution. That requires a new plan, he added.

“We need to deliver to those interested parties, our employees, our residents, and externally, our shareholders and investors; a two to three year plan around the various growth levers that we’re going to be pursuing,” he said.

Specifically, Ribar sees more opportunities for near-term improvement and recovery across the company’s 76-community senior housing portfolio, particularly in the company’s recently added communities.

Occupancy recovery is a top priority for Ribar, though Sonida has made headway in that area, announcing that about one-third of Sonida’s 76 communities were at least 90% occupied as of May, according to Ribar.

Sonida is “focused on the care portfolio that we have today and its performance,” Lody told SHN.

“We have to stay focused on that, and if there are opportunities to add to the portfolio through acquisitions or additional managed contracts, we are certainly open and are actively taking a look at those,” she said.

Continued rate growth is also a focus for the company, and Ribar said it will focus on “delivering services to our residents that produce and provide great value” to achieve that.

“Right now, we have laser focus on the existing portfolio of communities and the continued improvement in all of our key operating metrics,” Ribar said. “Near-term recovery is our immediate focus between now and the end of the year.”

Though he was limited in what he could share given that the company’s earnings call is a week away,Ribar told SHN that in his first 18 months as CEO, he plans to continue to look for ways to improve the resident experience – something he believes will continue to differentiate Sonida from others in the marketplace.

“How do you make sure that the physical plant meets the expectations of the residents?” he said. “How do you ensure that when your employees and your team come to work every day, they’re in a place where they really do enjoy working?”

Through those efforts, Sonida leadership believes the company can drive rate growth now and in future years.

“I’m not thinking about the kind of environment where you’re seeing one-time rate increases, but a longer-term ability to move your overall rate with a great product,” Ribar said.

In addition to creating a new multi-year strategic roadmap for returns, Sonida will look to build on its margins. Sonida reported its fourth consecutive quarter of occupancy growth in the first quarter of this year, with an NOI margin of 20.2%.

Though Sonida generally is seeking to reduce its overall expenses, Ribar takes the view that “you’re never going to be able to cut your way to recovery on the margin.”

“Many of our communities have gotten back to the levels where they were before the pandemic, so we know it’s very possible,” he said. “But it has to be done in a thoughtful manner.”

Prior to joining Sonida, Ribar was senior VP of operations at Golden Living, where he oversaw more than 20,000 employees throughout a portfolio of 305 skilled nursing and assisted living communities.

Ribar’s experience extends beyond operations, though. While at Golden, he also served as senior VP of operational finance and strategy. And prior to joining Golden, Ribar served as VP of healthcare investments at Fillmore Capital Partners, a private equity firm with more than $5 billion under management.

Lody looks back

As she steps away from the leadership role, Lody said she is looking forward to recharging her batteries after leaving the company on good footing.

“I came into this chair with a mandate from the board to transform the company both operationally and financially,” Lody told Senior Housing News. “Essentially, we have transformed the company – we’ve got a good solid platform in place.”

Lody said she is most proud of “the tenacity and fortitude” of the company’s workers since she ascended to the CEO role in 2019. She also is particularly proud of the company’s metamorphosis in the previous few years.

“I think the greatest accomplishment truly is the transformation of this company,” she said.

Lody stepped into the CEO role in 2019 after the departure of previous CEO Larry Cohen a year earlier. Cohen consulted with the company for a time, and later went on to found new operator Trustwell Living in 2021.

Now that she is stepping away from the leadership role, Lody said she plans to spend time with family and travel. She also in a LinkedIn post on Thursday said she would have updates down the road on what her “next adventure” will bring.

“I love this company and love this team,” Lody said. “I’ve worked with a lot of teams in my career, and never have I seen an organization pull together to support one another [like this one did].”

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