Ventas (NYSE: VTR) has named senior living industry veteran Justin Hutchens to the role of chief investment officer (CIO), expanding his role with the real estate investment trust.
The Chicago-based REIT on Monday announced it had combined Hutchens’ executive vice president role with the CIO position, a move that tasks the leader with overseeing the company’s senior housing and investment teams.
Hutchens will assume the responsibilities of exiting CIO John Cobb, who is leaving the company after 12 years but will remain as a strategic advisor through mid-February.
Ventas owns a portfolio of over 1,200 properties in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, including over 800 senior living communities, 330 medical office buildings and 45 life science, research and innovation facilities.
Ventas CEO Debra Cafaro said the combination would streamline the company’s executive management team while shoring up investment and business operations.
“We look forward to growing the Company in our strategic capital allocation priority areas of senior housing and life science, research and innovation,” Cafaro said in an announcement about the appointment.
A representative for Ventas declined to comment further regarding Hutchens’ appointment.
Hutchens joined Ventas in 2020 after stepping down as CEO of HC-One, the largest care home provider in the United Kingdom. He carries nearly three decades of senior living, finance and investment experience in his newly expanded role, having worked at multiple REITs over his career.
Hutchens worked early in his career for Summerville Senior Living, which merged with Emeritus Corp. in 2007. In 2009, he left Emeritus to become CEO of National Health Investors (NYSE: NHI) where he grew the company’s enterprise value to more than $3.5 billion.
He later joined Irvine, California-based HCP, the company today known as Healthpeak (NYSE: PEAK), where he worked as the REIT’s CIO, and later, its president.
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