Stephen Morton

Lead the strategic, operational, and financial growth of a locally-focused, care-oriented senior housing and solutions company. Primarily leading growth in two key areas:

• Acquisitions: Navion Senior Solutions has acquired several well-respected senior housing communities across the state of North Carolina. Navion has enhanced these communities through best-in-class training, support, and engagement of its team members; innovative approaches to engaging and caring for its residents; and the proactive inclusion of resident families. Navion completed $40m in acquisitions in 2017 alone.
• Developments: Navion Senior Solutions in currently developing several new senior housing communities in North Carolina, with the first set to open in 2018. Navion will seek to become the premier provider of senior living in each market that it enters, providing the highest quality care and environment for its residents and the most rewarding workplace for its team members. Navion currently has $110m in development projects underway.

Serve as a Board Member and Advisor to K4 Connect, a mission-centered technology company that creates solutions that serve and empower older adults and individuals living with disabilities. Provide expertise in the areas of operations, human resources management, business strategy and financing, as well as mentorship to the executive team.

Serve as an active mentor, board member, and angel investor in a range of companies in health and senior care technology and services, senior living, technology, real estate, and hospitality, and also as an advisor to the nation’s largest senior and independent living and financing companies.

• Invest, advise, and mentor young companies with strong management teams across a diversity of sectors, including: health and senior care, senior living, technology, real estate, and hospitality, with several successful exits.
• Actively review new investment and mentorship opportunities with a specific focus on senior care and living, routinely meeting with entrepreneurs pursuing new concepts and opportunities.
• Multiple successful investments and exits in technology and services start ups in diverse fields ranging from payments to e-prescribing.
• Consult for many of the nation’s largest senior and independent living chains, offering strategic, operational, and financial advice and oversight.
• Maintain close relationships with many of the nation’s largest senior living financing organizations, primarily REITs, offering advice and guidance on prospective and existing investments.

Serve as a Board Member at LivingVentures, a publicly-traded management company that operates Assisted Living facilities across the globe, serving thousands of seniors worldwide. Provide expertise in the areas of operations, human resources management, business strategy and financing, as well as mentorship to the executive team.

Brought in to lead a turnaround project, with a specific focus on improving the value of the assisted living portfolio, prior to a sale to Five Star Senior Living for $300M+.

• Brought in to improve a portfolio of 32 underperforming communities including Independent Living, Assisted Living, Alzheimer's and SNF ahead of a sale and given full operational responsibility over all aspects of the business.
• Rapidly assessed the key root causes of operational underperformance and crafted a turnaround plan to drive sustainable, long-term operational performance improvement.
• Led the roll out of the improvement plan across the company
• Negotiated a restructuring of the portfolio’s debt financing obligations.
• Improved occupancy, operating margins, and the overall value of the portfolio ahead of a sale to Five Star Senior Living for $300M+.

Identified, designed, and launched a mid-market assisted living chain spanning 45 communities across NC, VA, and SC, which served 3,200+ residents, grew to one of the top 20 largest assisted living providers in the nation, employed more than 2,000 people, and was sold to Brookdale Senior Living for $275M in 2006.

• Designed and oversaw all aspects of company operations strategy including sales, resident care operations programming, policies and procedures, supply chain management, human resources, compliance, etc.
• Responsible for acquisitions, development and profitability of forty-five communities including twenty-eight acquisitions ($128M); fourteen purpose built assisted living communities and three management contracts each with options to purchase in place.
• Successfully raised $45M in venture capital equity and placement of $160M in debt to facilitate growth.
• Successfully secured $210M in lease financing that facilitated the buy-out of 41 assisted living communities from seven venture capital investors in September 2003.
• Successfully led the sale of SALI to Brookdale Senior Living (BKD) for $275M in an all-cash transaction.
• Created revenue and expense management systems that increased operational profitability and community valuations throughout the portfolio.
• Operationally implemented company-wide customer satisfaction program resulting in an increased average length of stay and bottom-line profitability. This program increased customer satisfaction to a 90% satisfaction rate in 2003.
• Led the effort to create a full scale “SALI University” to better convey the goals of the company to community- based managers and line staff.
• Assembled a quality team of home office professionals and operations managers/employees totaling over 2,000 in three states.

• Led growth from three communities to eighty-four in an eighteen month period in the Eastern United States. Responsibilities included identifying potential growth opportunities, hands-on “take-over” operational responsibilities; evaluation of “to be” acquired communities and creation of assimilation strategies for all acquisitions. Achieved successful profitability within one year of date of acquisitions in multiple locations.
• Implemented revenue and operational strategies for 1,600 assisted living and congregate care units, involving over sixty managers and sales personnel, resulting in increased sales closings of 15% above pro forma and increased overall divisional profitability.

Responsible for regional operations support, acquisition review and assimilation strategies for multiple communities.

Responsible for turnaround as Administrator of a 141 bed licensed Virginia based Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing community that resulted in a 40% increase in monthly revenue and 15% decrease in monthly expenses. Overall valuation of this community increased by $3.0M.

Co-founded a innovative CCRC-Without-Walls concept that attempted to deliver assisted living-level service in the home. Responsible for all sales and marketing efforts.

A $130M, 1,600 unit assisted living and congregate care provider financed by Shearson Lehman.

• Responsible for the Sales and Marketing of twelve Independent Living and Assisted Living communities located east of the Mississippi.
• Successful in the lease-up and ongoing occupancy levels for all twelve communities resulting in increased Profitability Company wide.

A $36M venture capital start-up with over 400 units of upscale Congregate Care.

• Hired by Security Pacific Venture Capital as part of a team of four individuals to turnaround a $36M venture capital start-up that was in “workout” status.
• Increased occupancy resulted in a net gain in value of the portfolio of $25M.
• Responsible for community management and sales for over 400 units of upscale Congregate Care.
• Achieved positive cash flows in less than two years and a profitable sale to Bircher Properties.
• Co-authored computerized lead management and sales tracking systems that resulted in enhanced customer follow-up that substantially reduced closing time frames.

• Managed facilities for a Long Term Care community with over 500 beds of Skilled, Intermediate, Congregate Care, Senior apartments and “For Sale” senior town homes.
• Responsible for the “Hospital based Campus” sales of skilled, intermediate care, congregate care, for sale and for rent senior apartments. Campus included over five hundred beds of all levels of Long Term Care.
• Responsible for the sale of 70,000 square foot medical office condominium space to local area doctors.
• Managed the sales for a 312 unit HUD funded senior apartment community.
• Authored the strategy to market and fill a 312 unit HUD Senior Apartment Community which resulted in a pre-lease of 40%, full occupancy in six months, and a savings of over $200,000 in marketing expenses.
• Successfully formed a joint venture between twenty-five physicians and a local hospital to start an outpatient surgery center including financial feasibility analysis of the surgery center and required real estate purchase.

Successfully closed $60M of commercial and industrial real estate sales