Former Claiborne Executive Joins Jaybird Senior Living as Chief Operating Officer

Justin Ray joined Jaybird Senior Living as CEO of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Ray brings nearly two decades of experience with seniors to Jaybird Senior Living, working with a variety of senior care providers including Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD), Frontier Management, Pegasus Senior Living, Mather and Pacifica Senior Living, according to his LinkedIn. profile.

He most recently served as chief operating officer at Claiborne Senior Living, an in-house division of development company CR Properties.

Ray has extensive experience working with the elderly, having served in roles including Senior Vice President of Operations, Vice President of Operations and Marketing, and Sales and Marketing Manager. According to his LinkedIn profile, he also previously worked as a culinary manager.

In a Linkedin post posted on Tuesday, Ray said he was “excited to be working with [CEO] Kevin Russell [CFO] tom lastrom, [Vice President of Clinical Operations] cassidy Youngbluth, [Director of Culture and Team Development] Cale Nygaard and all the rest of the Jaybird team.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, Ray could not be contacted for comment.

Now with 75 communities, Jaybird Senior Living has tripled in size since 2019 and looks poised for future growth, Russell said in an interview with Senior Housing News last month.

Looking ahead, the company is targeting markets for growth where it already has a presence or can create one — and ideally where someone from Jaybird’s corporate office can visit every week.

Jaybird’s largest presence is in Iowa, where it operates 40 communities. The company also operates 13 communities in Wisconsin, 11 in Minnesota, and two each in Kentucky and Illinois, with plans to further expand the Midwest to Missouri.