Former Claiborne Exec Joins Jaybird Senior Living as COO

Justin Wray has joined Jaybird Senior Living as the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based senior living provider’s operations executive.

Wray brings nearly two decades of senior living experience with him to Jaybird Senior Living, having worked with various senior living providers including Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD), Frontier Management, Pegasus Senior Living, Mather and Pacifica Senior Living, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He last worked as COO at Claiborne Senior Living, which is the in-house management arm of developer CR Properties.

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Wray has an extensive background in senior living operations, having worked in roles including senior vice president of operations, vice president of operations and marketing and sales and marketing manager. He also previously has worked as a culinary services manager, according to his LinkedIn profile.

In a Linkedin post published Tuesday, Wray said he was “excited to be working alongside [CEO] Kevin Russell, [CFO] Tom Lastrom, [Vice President of Clinical Operations] Cassidy Youngblut, [Director of Culture and Team Development] Kayle Neegaard and all the other Jaybird team members.”

Wray could not be immediately reached for comment as of Tuesday afternoon.

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Now at 75 communities and growing, Jaybird Senior Living has tripled in size since 2019 and appears poised for future growth, Russell told Senior Housing News last month.

Looking ahead, the company is targeting markets for growth where it has a footprint or can build one – and ideally, in a location where someone from the Jaybird corporate office can visit every week.

Jaybird’s biggest presence is in Iowa, where it operates 40 communities. The company also operates 13 communities in Wisconsin, 11 in Minnesota, and two each in Kentucky and Illinois, with plans in the works to expand further in the Midwest out to Missouri.

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