Solvida Development has assembled a team of the best minds in the senior living business. Our panel of real estate, health planning, architectural, construction, feasibility, and project management experts have demonstrated unmatched leadership across a wide range of senior living and apartment conversion projects. Read on to learn more about each of our members.
James Vogel
President | Solvida Development Group
Jim brings more than 30 years of experience as a developer, manager, and consultant in the real estate and healthcare industries. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
As a developer Jim has specialized in the rehabilitation of uncompetitive multifamily properties, providing a consistent return on capital including through the Great Recession of 2007.
Jim led the Denver office of The Innova Group from 2012 to 2020, where he provided management consulting to leading U.S. and international health care and government organizations. This included capital planning for hospital and integrated healthcare systems with budgets ranging from several hundred million to billions of dollars.
As an executive, Jim managed the financial planning unit for Kaiser Permanente’s internal Colorado operations, where he was responsible for project review and $2.5 billion in annual operations budget. He led the state of Colorado’s Medicaid managed care contracting group. Jim has also been a long-term advisor to the Colorado Medicaid agency, where he has conducted numerous studies for its Home and Community Based Services waivers, PACE program, Long-Term Care Services, and other programs.
Advisory Team
Mark C. Lichtenwalner
Co-Chief Executive Officer | AgeWell Solvere Living
Mark Lichtenwalner has 28 years of experience in the senior housing field, beginning his career at Marriott International. Mark co-founded AgeWell Living in 2008 with his business partner Lawrence Landry to manage the senior living assets they owned or in which they held investments with Westport Advisors. Prior to founding AgeWell Living, in 2004 Mark joined the Westport Senior Living Investment Fund as Vice President of Operations to direct operations for the funds’ stabilized assets in Florida totaling 1,800 units. Prior to joining Westport Advisors and the formation of AgeWell Living, Mark served as Regional Vice President of Operations for Classic Residence by Hyatt (now Vi) from 2001 through 2004, overseeing 7 communities in Florida with revenues totaling $100M.
Age Well Solvere Living has formed a joint venture with Solvida Development Group for the Solvida Lexington project in Lexington, Kentucky. The organization now operates 40 senior living facilities in the Southeastern United States and California, with 500 Independent Living, 2,000 Assisted Living, and 1,000 Memory Care units. The AgeWell Solvere team and newly merged Sonata Senior Living organization have developed and exited a number of senior living investments, with several AWS executives involved in scores of ground-up developments under the Marriott and Sunrise Senior Living flags. awsliving.com sonataseniorliving.com
Kristin Kutac Ward
Co-Chief Executive Officer | AgeWell Solvere Living
Kristin Ward has 27 years of management experience in the senior living industry, beginning her career as a nursing home administrator. Kristin co-founded Solutions Advisors, a consulting firm for the senior living industry in 2009, and in 2014 created a dedicated management platform and brand, Solvere Living. During her leadership at Solutions Advisors, she managed sales and marketing re-positionings, turnarounds and trainings in more than 80 communities in 28 different states, as well as provided operations consulting and strategy. At Solvere Living she acted as CEO and led company in managing over 2,800 units and fifteen new developments as the third-party manager for various owners.
Mitch Abrams
Founder and CEO | Providence Consulting & Design
Mitch is the Founder and CEO of Providence Consulting and Design (PC&D), which currently works with more than 300 facilities in more than 35 States. He has spent the last 25+ years in the construction/engineering field focusing primarily within the Senior Living space. An MBA with a Specialization in Health Care Policy, Mitch has been involved in 100’s of millions of dollars of projects, including renovations exceeding 5,000,000 sq ft of facilities across the United States.
Mitch holds numerous licenses, including licensed electrician and electrical contractor; Journeyman HVAC Mechanic; Universal EPA License; and GC licenses in multiple states. Mitch has launched several companies and was CEO of a large construction/design build firm focusing on senior living and employing 85 employees, including architects, engineers, and interior designers. He also launched a furniture company that made case goods for health care facilities. Mitch is a Member of the National Fire Protection Association and is a board advisor for a maintenance software program for senior living.
Clay Campbell
Vice President Construction | Providence Consulting & Design
Clay has 30 years experience managing complex health care construction projects for clients such as MD Anderson Cancer Center and others. He has served as VP Construction at a 125-facility long-term care organization and has led design and architectural teams among other responsibilities.
Martin Siefering
AIA Principal | Perkins Eastman
As a principal at Perkins Eastman, Martin Siefering has extensive experience planning and designing large-scale, complex senior living environments. Since he joined the firm in 1990, his responsibilities have included planning, design, construction, supervision, and project direction for some of the firm’s most challenging senior living projects. Martin has led projects across the full continuum of senior care: supportive housing, LPCs, assisted living, long-term care, and chronic care hospitals. His approach to architecture is based upon the integration of nature, sensitive site design, and sustainable building design.
Martin has been a speaker, collaborator, and strategic partner to LeadingAge and their state associations; he has given lectures on creating the best environments for aging adults and consumer elder care trends in the U.S. and Canada. He is a frequent contributor to industry publications and was a contributing author to the John Wiley & Sons publication, Building Type Basics for Senior Living, 2nd Edition 2013. He leverages his 39 years of experience to facilitate his clients’ strategic thinking.
Hillary DeGroff
Associate Principal | Perkins Eastman
Hillary offers 14 years of experience in the design of residential living, hospitality, and healthcare projects. A strategic thought leader within Perkins Eastman, she applies her knowledge of sustainable practices and thinking to all scales of work from community master planning to interior repositioning. Hillary has worked with both private developers and non-profit providers, designing unique opportunities for placemaking that allow for experiences and social connection – two elements she feels create a successful environment.
Recently, she has developed a strong interest in the convergence of living environments, specifically those touching on intergenerational models, and is exploring the concept of intergenerational living communities built into secondary prep schools’ master planning. Hillary holds a curiosity that is ever-present in her research, as well as her design work. This curiosity paired with her own personal experiences is the backbone of her holistic approach to creating environments for people.
Mimi McKay
RLA | FASLA | Principal | McKay Landscape Architects
Mimi is the founding principal of McKay Landscape Architects. Since 1982, a full-service Women’s Business Enterprise design firm, Mimi’s team has been committed to the thoughtful pursuit and practice of landscape architecture. On every project, her goal is to bring high-quality design, technical experience, professionalism, and a strong personal commitment to the table. Over time and with experience, she has become a specialist in affordable, senior, and supportive housing.
Mimi has been an adjunct professor at University of IL, Circle Campus, a speaker on the Chicago Architecture Lecture Series, a speaker at the Livable Cities Conference – Portland, OR in 2014, and a panelist on Reimagining the Civic Commons – Chicago, IL in 2017.
Most of her time is spent in the office on design projects. The best work is always achieved through enthusiastic collaboration with clients, architects, engineers, consultants, and contractors – all working together to solve a problem defined through discussions with key stakeholders, programmatic requirements, and a thorough investigation of the site. Mimi is committed to the process and to fully understanding the needs of the client and the end user for the best possible solution.
Shanna Olsen
Architectural Lighting Leader | IMEG
Shanna Olson, LC, MIES, is IMEG Corp’s Architectural Lighting Leader, guiding her team in creating aesthetically pleasing, technically versed, and sustainable lighting designs. Shanna also endeavors to be at the forefront of new and emerging technologies, trends, and applications, including biophilic design and integration with other design services to optimize user experiences of spaces.
She actively presents to local and national organizations, co-authored Advanced Energy Design Guide for K-12 School Buildings – Achieving Zero Energy, and is a voting member of the IES Education, Office, and Library committees as well as an advisory member to the IES Healthcare committee. She has vast experience in senior living, hospitality, healthcare, corporate, educational, historic renovation, and retail sectors, employing her client- and occupant-centric approach to create curated experiences through visual communication and technical expertise.
Peter Trice
Partner | The Innova Group
Peter Trice, a founding partner of The Innova Group, has spent more than 30 years developing his expertise in architecture and healthcare planning. Peter understands the full continuum of the business case: strategic and financial planning combined with alternative operating models and realistic design solutions. As an industry leader in the integration of new concepts in clinical operations into hospital design, Peter enjoys the challenge of working with a broad spectrum of clients in the rapidly changing world of healthcare.
Peter’s ability to communicate solutions logically, clearly, and precisely and his commitment to delivering on-time, on-budget work foster the solid trust of his clients and builds their confidence to make difficult decisions in the face of uncertainty. He has presented internationally and nationally at conferences on a variety of strategic and planning topics including master plan implementation and strategic planning tied to financial modeling. He earned his BA in Architecture from the University of Illinois. He went on to earn his Master of Architecture and MBA from the same institution.
William D. Hendrickson
President | Hendrickson Consulting
William D. Hendrickson is the founder and president of Hendrickson Consulting, a financial and management consulting firm specializing in non-profit retirement organizations. Beginning in 1990, Hendrickson Consulting has completed more than 300 assignments for retirement communities and other long-term care providers.
Hendrickson Consulting specializes in feasibility studies, project development and business strategies, and tax-exempt financing evaluation and restructuring. The first has completed feasibility studies for more than 100 tax-exempt bond issues and bank financings, ranging in size from $2 million to $200 million. Hendrickson Consulting has also completed dozens of assignments for clients requiring financial planning and evaluation. Previous to forming the firm, Mr. Hendrickson held positions with financial advisory and consulting firms. Mr. Hendrickson received his BA from the University of California at Berkeley and his MBA in Finance from the University of Washington.
Ralph Novak
Owner | Novak Consulting
With over 25 years in the senior living industry, Ralph Novak brings a wealth of industry experience including a deep understanding of consumer-preference benchmarks supported by years of consumer research. His firm, Novak Consulting, offers senior living communities, developers, and investors customized research and consulting services to help inform smarter and data-based business and planning decisions. He also worked for the leading senior housing marketing firm GlynnDevins – now Attane – as well as SB&A (a GlynnDevins acquisition) for 7 years.
Trained as a demographer and geographic information systems analyst, Ralph’s market-research experience includes project management, the development of customized projections of market depth and demand, and primary-data collection methodologies and processes including survey design and analysis, sample selection, and focus group design, moderation, and analysis. Ralph completed both undergraduate and graduate work at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), focusing on geography and spatial demography. His career has been exclusively focused on the senior living industry.