Leaders with Sonida Senior Living (NYSE: SNDA) have named Anton Nikodemus as the company’s new COO, its first since 2022.
Nikodemus is slated to join the company’s leadership team on June 15 after working at entertainment and hospitality company Seaport Entertainment Group, where he worked as president, CEO and chairman of the company’s board. This is his first senior living role, according to Sonida President and CEO Brandon Ribar. Sonida’s most recent COO is Ribar, who ascended from the role to CEO in 2022.
Ribar added that Sonida hired Nikodemus in part due to his “different frame of reference” and experience in “team development, guest experience and operational execution.”
“Senior living communities are increasingly expected to deliver a true lifestyle experience, not just a care setting. Anton has spent his career building exactly that kind of operation,” Ribar told Senior Housing News.
Nikodemus is set to lead Sonida’s resident experience, platform growth and margin expansion. He brings more than 30 years of executive-level hospitality and operations leadership to the position, with a career that includes 18 years at MGM Resorts International, culminating as president and CEO of CityCenter, a role that tasked him with overseeing multiple Las Vegas-area properties, including the AAA Five Diamond ARIA Resort & Casino, Vdara Hotel & Spa and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
In March, Sonida completed its $1.8 billion merger with CNL Healthcare Properties. The move brought its portfolio up to 153 communities. Sonida has tasked Nikodemus with overseeing the transition of communities from that acquisition into the company’s portfolio. He will also be involved in the Sonida Performance Insight Navigator (SPIN) platform that Sonida rolled out this year. The platform helps Sonida leadership track data on staffing, care and operations in real time.
By hiring Nikodemus, Sonida is investing in leadership capacity to support the company’s growth plans. Leaders with Sonida have spent the last few years building up the company’s balance sheet, upgrading its portfolio and building operating infrastructure.
Sonida is now in the “compounding phase” of those efforts, Ribar said.
“That will be strengthened by someone who can drive performance at scale across a growing, dynamic portfolio. Creating the COO role is a direct reflection of how Sonida sees execution as a competitive advantage,” he added.
“We completed our first community transitions from the CHP acquisition a few weeks back, with 11 more expected this summer,” Ribar said. “The operational and financial trajectory gives us confidence in the direction of the business, and Anton’s arrival strengthens our ability to execute against it.”
