By Jeff Shaw
When the assisted living revolution unfolded in the 1990s, Ray Braun was there. A lawyer by trade, he was hired as a vice president and assistant general counsel at active seniors housing investor Health Care REIT in 1993, later promoted to chief operating officer, chief financial officer and then served as president from 2002 to 2009.
Now known as Welltower, Health Care REIT was one of the first publicly traded seniors housing investment companies. As of June 1, the company ranked as the largest U.S. seniors housing owner with 102,646 units spread across 1,000 properties, according to the American Seniors Housing Association.
While working at Welltower, Braun also served on the board of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) starting in 2000. He helped oversee the build-up of the organization as it grew from a transaction facilitator to the largest data and analytics provider in the seniors housing space.
After heading up a medical office REIT for a few years, Braun became dean of the Bowling Green State University business school for a decade. That’s when NIC came calling and asked Braun to replace outgoing CEO Brian Jurutka. He said “yes” and took over the position in 2002. He has since helped implement a strategic plan to grow and improve the organization’s function.
Seniors Housing Business spoke with Braun about his deep history in the seniors housing industry, as well as where he sees it heading in the future.
Seniors Housing Business: Walk me through your career before accepting the CEO position at NIC in 2022.
Ray Braun: I graduated from law school and then practiced corporate finance law for 10 years. One of my clients was Health Care REIT (renamed Welltower in 2015). Management asked me to join the company and work on the business side. I held various roles there including CFO, COO and president. Then when I left Health Care REIT, I became CEO of Cogdell Spencer Inc., a REIT investing primarily in medical office buildings. (The company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol “CSA” until Ventas acquired it in 2011.)
Most recently I was dean of the Schmidthorst College of Business at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.
SHB: How did you adjust to working in medical real estate from a law school background?
Braun: Each time I changed my career path I had new opportunities, but I had to go through a learning curve. For me, that kept it pretty exciting. The biggest adjustment was going into higher education — especially at a state university where the institution was governed by state and federal laws. The governance there is much different than in the corporate world.
SHB: How did the NIC hiring come about?
Braun: I retired as dean on June 30, 2022. At that point I had some board members and [NIC founder] Bob Kramer reach out to me to see if I had interest in rejoining NIC. I was an active NIC volunteer on the board and served a term as chair, so I was very familiar with the organization. I believed in NIC’s mission and the things it was doing.
SHB: To what level are the previous two CEOs, Bob Kramer and Brian Jurutka, involved and available to you today?
Braun: Bob is involved every day. He’s a strategic advisor to NIC, and I talk to him just about every day. He helps provide advice and guidance.
Brian was a strategic advisor for one year after I came on board. He helped me with the onboarding process and getting me up to speed, and he did some special projects for us. He’s since moved on to pursue a career at IMA Financial Group. I see him occasionally for a meal or at a conference.
SHB: For obvious reasons, your 12 years at Health Care REIT (now Welltower), starting in 1997 and including seven years as president, jumps off your resume. What has changed in the seniors housing industry from those early days of assisted living?
Braun: Assisted living was an emerging property type. It was a private-pay alternative to independent living but prior to needing skilled nursing services. It was early on in the emergence of that property type.
Today, I would characterize assisted living as a mature property type. Assisted living today serves higher-acuity residents and those with special needs like memory care.
The other thing that was different was that active adult was just getting started. It’s now established a presence on the continuum of care.
Another big difference is the use of data and analytics in decision making. There’s much more robust data to help both investors and operators make better decisions.
A fresh perspective
SHB: Are there any lessons learned from your 10 years as a college dean that you’re bringing to NIC now?
Braun: There are quite a few. When I joined NIC, something that was new since I was active as a volunteer were the boot camps — one-day immersive experiences for professionals to learn about skilled nursing or seniors housing.
When I was dean, I developed a very successful MBA program. We used that background to create NIC Academy. It now includes online certificate programs for underwriting seniors housing and care. We’re building a portfolio of online curricula. That’s very similar to what you do in business school.
We also added a data and analytics conference to our lineup to showcase best practices in the seniors housing industry.
And our research portfolio has shifted a little bit. Case studies are very popular at business schools. We started doing case studies of opportunities and challenges in the seniors housing industry. Those are very popular.
SHB: Tell us more about the certificate programs.
Braun: We rolled out the first one last October. It’s six eight-hour courses, fully online, and participants have 90 days to complete the certificate. Then they get a designation: Certified Seniors Housing Investment Professional.
In July we rolled out the intermediate-level certification, and early next year we’ll roll out advanced-level courses. It’s an easy way for people to educate themselves at their convenience.
SHB: What’s the value to the industry of having these programs?
Braun: It will enhance the professionalism of the industry and help newer people get up to speed quickly. Right now, the way training occurs is on the job. You go to work for a company, you’re given a project, someone helps mentor you, and that’s how you learn. It can be very effective if you have a good mentor, but even if you do it limits your learning to the projects you work on. We provide a comprehensive program.
A look back and a peek forward
SHB: You’ve been involved with NIC directly since 2000, so you’ve really had a chance to see it change over the years. What are some of the changes you’ve witnessed in the organization over those 24 years?
Braun: When Bob Kramer first launched NIC, it was primarily for convening investors and operators in a single location to make it convenient to do dealmaking. We then started growing our research function. The goal was to become the thought leader. This is going back to 2000 when we built NIC MAP. One thing investors were looking for was better data to make decisions. We built NIC MAP to provide that.
In 2022, we sold a majority position in NIC MAP to some outside investors to provide growth capital. It remains one of our affiliates. They’ve grown and evolved the business to be the premier data service to serve capital providers and operators. Now they’re introducing AI (artificial intelligence) into the data set.
When I was finishing up in the industry, NIC started the Future Leaders Council to identify young professionals with leadership potential in the industry. That’s been a very successful program. Even some of our board members are graduates of that program.
The first conference I went to was in the spring of 2023. It struck me how much the conferences had evolved since I was previously involved. They’re much larger, much more professional. NIC remains the premier convener in the industry.
NIC has really been performing some groundbreaking research like the middle-market study, working with NORC, Harvard and the Milken Institute. NIC continues to evolve and get better.
SHB: How is AI involved in the research function?
Braun: NIC MAP Vision has created a product that helps recruit executive directors, bringing to the table information that was previously not available, using AI. That’s been a very strong product. They’re using AI to enhance operations.
As another example, when a surveyor comes to a building and identifies issues that need corrections, AI can create a plan of correction for the operator. Innovators are also building products to help underwrite transactions.
SHB: What are your targets for change and growth within NIC?
Braun: Adding the data and analytics conference is a big step forward for us — showcasing best practices for using data. We’ve expanded our educational offerings with the NIC Academy, and we continue to add curricula. I don’t see that stopping anytime soon. The industry wants more training in a lot of different areas of the business.
We’re expanding the sponsored research we’ve been conducting, showcasing opportunities and challenges through case studies.
One crucial aspect of NIC is our exceptional volunteer network. We hired a new director of volunteer engagement to provide members of the network with an outstanding volunteer experience.
We created what we call focus-area committees, five new committees to advise on active adult, age technology, capital for operations, the middle market and partnering for health. These committees added about 60 volunteers with subject-matter expertise in those areas. They’re providing advice and guidance on conference programming and research, so we stay abreast of current trends. NIC is essential in leading the evolution of housing and care.
SHB: What are the biggest challenges facing the seniors housing industry today?
Braun: The baby boomer demographic is well known. We can see that coming, and they will soon be entering into our housing and care properties. They have different preferences than prior generations. One of the challenges is evolving to meet that need.
Another challenge that NIC has been actively addressing is affordability for the middle market — people who have too many resources to qualify for subsidized housing but not enough for an extended stay in seniors housing. We need to continue working on solutions to that problem.
Lastly, if you followed some of our recent research, there are significant health and wellness benefits to residing in seniors housing. We have the research to show that. We need to get that word out, so people look favorably on seniors housing.
One of the things we’re still trying to improve is transparency for capital providers. The industry has not had standard financial reports. We’re creating that reporting to hopefully attract some new capital providers. During the fall conference, we will release our seventh edition of the investment guide, which is the definitive guide for capital providers.
SHB: What’s something people in the industry would be surprised to learn about you?
Braun: They probably don’t know one of my hobbies is cooking. Some of my family favorites are Cajun food, creole food and salmon with red wine reduction.