TOLEDO, Ohio — Welltower Inc. (NYSE: HCN) has promoted Mercedes Kerr to the position of executive vice president of business development and Matthew McQueen to the positions of senior vice president of general counsel and corporate secretary.
In her new role, Kerr will identify, build and manage relationships with health systems, seniors housing operators, real estate developers and financial institutions to grow Welltower’s healthcare property portfolio. She will serve as an executive officer of the company, joining the senior leadership team.
Kerr is on the Executive Committee of the American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA), the Board of Counselors for the University of Southern California’s Davis School of Gerontology, and the Board of the California Assisted Living Association (CALA).
Prior to joining Welltower in 2008, Kerr served as vice president of acquisitions at HCP Inc. and before that as a member of the consulting division of Ernst & Young LLP. Kerr graduated from the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara in Mexico and obtained a master’s degree in real estate development from the University of Southern California.
McQueen will replace the recently retired Erin Ibele as corporate secretary and will now report to Jeffrey Miller, Welltower’s chief operating officer.
McQueen joined Welltower in April 2015 from Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago, where he served as a partner in their Corporate & Securities group. In his 11 years at Sidley, he led mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, public and private securities offerings, and joint ventures. While at Sidley, he represented Welltower in several transactions, including the company’s acquisition of Genesis HealthCare, Sunrise Senior Living, HealthLease and several joint ventures including Revera and Senior Resource Group.
McQueen holds a bachelor’s degree in English and history from Indiana University. He earned his J.D. from the University of Michigan.
Based in Toledo, Welltower is the largest healthcare REIT in the United States by market cap.