Lisa Amber is an award-winning sales and marketing professional with almost twenty years in the senior-housing industry. Her experience also includes medical operations management within the medical/healthcare arena.

Her senior housing marketing career began with American Senior Communities where she spent eight years and worked her way up to regional sales and marketing director. Most recently she served as regional director of sales and marketing for Solstice Senior Living where she was able to raise overall census from 59% to 91% through her tested communications initiatives.

Lisa is well versed in senior housing technology and highly proficient in sales and marketing platforms. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication and media studies from the University of Phoenix.

For the past twenty years, Denise Leith’s career has focused on real estate accounting. Starting as a staff accountant with Trammell Crow, she soon became a senior commercial accountant at a major full-service commercial/residential real estate organization. From there, she moved to the McKinley Companies where she spent ten years as a senior commercial accountant for the national real estate investment and management firm. She also served as senior commercial accountant for RealPage. Eventually she became corporate assistant controller at REDICO/American Senior Living before moving to AVIVA Senior Living.

Denise holds a Bachelor of Accountancy degree from Walsh College of Accountancy and Business Administration. Denise is an award-winning accountant with special expertise in senior housing and Yardi software.

Julie brings over 25 years of experience in healthcare, with 12 years dedicated to working in senior housing. Her expertise in regulatory compliance and advocacy comes from managing both operations and resident care across various communities for Benchmark Senior Living (Northeast largest operator) and Epoch Senior Living.

Julie earned both her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing and her Master of Science degree in nurse leadership from Framingham State University.

Chris Watts oversees Aviva Senior Living’s human resources strategy, talent acquisition, leadership and training development, cultural development and HR operations.

Chris earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Auburn University and her MBA in Human Resource Management from the University of Phoenix.

She brings over 20 years’ experience in Human Resource Management in senior living and health care industries.

Tina is a seasoned clinical executive with over 20 years of healthcare experience. She began her career in senior living as a direct caregiver, completing LPN and RN school and moving into Director of Nursing, Regional Director of Care, and Divisional Vice President of Care roles. She prides herself on having a collaborative approach and building relationships and teams. She has gained 11 years of multi-site experience from her time at Enlivant, Elmcroft, and Eclipse Senior Living. Tina has dedicated her career to serving seniors and ensuring excellent care, standards, and outcomes.

Tina holds a B.S. degree in registered nursing from Chamberlain University. 

COO / North East Mid-Atlantic

Jennifer has a B.A in Psychology from Adelphi University and a double Master’s Degree in Healthcare Administration and Gerontology from the University of Phoenix. She has worked in the senior living arena for 25 years in several different roles. She began her career in Social Work and later grew into operations as a Nursing Home Administrator. Jennifer then continued her career in Skilled Nursing and transitioned into Assisted Living as an Executive Director. After working as an Executive Director for ten years, she transitioned into a regional role which enabled her to support a number of communities. She is well versed in leading business transformation, organizational structuring, and project implementation. She is very excited to have the opportunity to work with AVIVA Senior Living to further develop and enhance their brand.

David Grady is president of Aviva Senior Living (formerly Lloyd Jones Senior Living). In this capacity he is charged with building a senior-housing platform that leads the nation in innovation and quality.  Previously, he had served on the Lloyd Jones Advisory Board.

With a bachelor’s degree in theology, a master’s degree in healthcare administration, and  a Ph.D.in counseling, David has spent his 40-year career serving seniors.  His extensive industry experience has  included executive positions with major senior- housing firms: Bridge Investment Group as senior partner and chief asset officer overseeing investment strategy; Bridge Senior Living as president; Somerby Senior Living as president; Elmcroft Senior Living as divisional vice president. Motivated by his passion for servant leadership and his commitment to growing a team of talented, compassionate professionals, David will direct the strategic operations of Aviva Senior Living as it extends its presence throughout the U.S.

After identifying the need for an innovative approach to the development process, Michael Hass brought his expertise in senior living projects to co-found Drive Development Partners in 2015.

Finding his niche in Continuing Care Retirement Communities early in his career allowed Michael to become an authority on senior living developments, building over 8 million square feet as a General Contractor. Since founding Drive Development Partners, he has placed over 1.9 million square feet of development under construction with an additional 1 million square in backlog. Working with industry-leading companies such as Senior Resource Group, Avanti Senior Living, Prevarian Senior Living, and YourLife. Michael’s projects span California to Connecticut and Florida to Oregon. In his career, Michael has built over 9 million square feet of senior living communities and Drive reached $1 million in service fee revenue in its second year of operations.

Michael’s focus is to champion Drive Development Partners’ projects and create new communities to serve tomorrow’s senior. Balancing marketability, capital costs, alternative delivery methods, and changing financial markets is his strength. With an engineering degree from Iowa State and 20 years’ experience in the construction industry, Michael brings a refreshingly practical perspective to the development
process. Drawing on his time working with his family in their Midwest construction and development business and his 15 years with The Weitz Company as a Director of Senior Living, Michael has learned development literally from the ground up.
What makes Drive Development Partners’ approach to projects unique is their willingness to break with norms to create exceptional projects. Michael is adept at taking a project from concept to financing to stabilization. His extensive knowledge and background create not only an efficient process, but a differentiated project as well. Michael specifically tailors each project to its unique market. And with
experience sourcing sophisticated lenders and investors in varying financing structures, Drive Development Partners tailors the capital individually as well. From small family offices and individual investors to international equity funds and not-forprofits, each project gets a custom development plan that works to ensure the best chance of success.

Michael strives to make every project not only successful, but enjoyable for everyone involved. Educating and informing team members on the project to create a lasting and beneficial impact is the most enjoyable part of each development. The success of Michael’s clients continues to directly translate to recognition and growth for Drive as the business continues to prepare for a coming surge in demand for new housing solutions.

Education: Bachelor of Science in Construction Engineering Iowa State University, Masters in Business Admin (partial) University of Iowa

INVESTMENT
Acquisitions
Asset Management

DEVELOPMENT

Construction Management
Interior Design

SENIOR HOUSING MANAGEMENT

MULTIFAMILY MANAGEMENT

INVESTMENT

DEVELOPMENT

SENIOR HOUSING MANAGEMENT MULTIFAMILY MANAGEMENT

Chris Finlay began investing in real estate early in his career as a commercial airline pilot with Eastern Airlines. Casual investing soon evolved into a major commercial real estate business, and in 1983 Chris resigned from Eastern to concentrate exclusively on the Finlay Company. During the ensuing years, Chris grew the company into one of the largest real estate firms in New England. 

In 1990, he began to focus on real estate development and over the next fifteen years developed, constructed, and managed approximately 40 multifamily and senior housing communities and luxury condominiums.

The Great Recession of 2008 provided numerous investment opportunities in the multifamily arena, and after a few years of investing for his own account, Chris established Lloyd Jones to offer outside investors an opportunity to participate in his acquisitions. A few years later, he added senior living and development subsidiaries to capitalize on the exploding demand for senior housing. More recently, seeing acquisition opportunities in the hospitality industry, he added a hotel investment division.

Today, Chris leverages his successful 40-year track record and experience to lead Lloyd Jones and all its subsidiaries as chairman and CEO.

Chris’s education includes Upper Canada College and post-graduate studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He has also completed extensive industry training. He is on the board of the National Multifamily Housing Council, a member of The American Seniors Housing Association, and a strong supporter of Shelters to Shutters, a non-profit organized to connect individuals facing homelessness to opportunities for employment and housing within the multifamily community.