Editor’s Note: McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care are profiling the McKnight’s 2023 Pinnacle Awards honorees daily in April and May. For additional McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards content, visit this page.
For more than 30 years, Chris Belford has worked to ensure that senior living communities are on solid financial footing, with quality care for each resident driving his decision-making. After an early career in the lodging industry at Hyatt Hotels, he brought a hospitality mindset to healthcare in 1991.
Strategic and innovative, Belford’s keen eye for perfecting operations, launching new business developments and identifying merger and acquisition candidates is always backed up by a commitment to quality customer service for residents, their families and company employees.
He was recognized in the inaugural McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards with “Thought Leader” category honors.
JEA Senior Living of Vancouver, WA, hired Belford to be its president and CEO in November 2020, when it had 57 senior communities. It has since grown to 80 communities and undergone a rebranding to become Sinceri Senior Living. And it has expanded beyond memory care to include assisted living and independent living.
Before Sinceri, Belford oversaw all senior housing, skilled nursing and hospital properties for American Healthcare Investors, part of an $8 billion portfolio of assets under management that included 140 communities across the US and in the United Kingdom.
He also formerly held executive or senior leadership positions at Emeritus Senior Living and Brookdale Senior Living. He started his healthcare career in 1991 with ERA Care Inc. and worked for BPM Assisted Living (now Regent Assisted Living) from 1996 to 2001.
A graduate of Washington State University, Belford also completed post-graduate studies at Seattle University and earned an MBA from the University of Phoenix. In addition, he currently serves on the executive board of the American Seniors Housing Association.
The McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. Honorees were recognized March 7 at a gala banquet and awards ceremony in Chicago. The program’s Platinum sponsor was MatrixCare. Omnicare was a Silver sponsor, and additional sponsors included Pinnacle Quality Insight, HealthDirect and Sentrics.
