Meet the Advisory Council

Keven Bennema

Founder & CEO – Charter Senior Living

Keven Bennema is the Founder and CEO of Charter Senior Living. After a humbling but formative beginning as a caregiver, Bennema rose to executive ranks in the senior living sector, working for several large national providers.

He worked in every functional department of a skilled nursing community before ultimately earning his Nursing Home Administrator License in the state of Ohio.

Concurrently, he completed his MBA in Health Care Administration from Cleveland State University. Keven continued his career in several senior living companies, serving as Executive Director, Regional Director and eventually becoming Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer of Senior Lifestyle Corporation in Chicago.

Now, with his own company underway and 14 properties (and counting) under his direct leadership, Keven is focused exclusively on advancing his team-inspired vision for senior living under the Charter banner.

Jerrold Frumm

Vice Chairman and Chief Investment Officer – Senior Lifestyle

Jerry Frumm is the Vice Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Senior Lifestyle. In this role Jerry serves as the Chairman of the Senior Lifestyle Investment Committee, which reviews all investment activities for the company. Jerry has been associated with Senior Lifestyle since its inception in 1985. During his tenure, Jerry has been involved in all phases of the development and acquisition of Senior Lifestyle communities and has closed on innumerable debt and equity transactions. Jerry is responsible for key relationships with Senior Lifestyle’s diversified base of capital partners.

Jerry is an attorney who has practiced with both state and federal governments. He is a member of the Chicago Bar Association and he also currently serves as a member of the Public Policy Committee on The American Seniors Housing Association.

Jerry holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from The Ohio State University and a Law Degree from Washington University School of Law. He is also a licensed real estate broker.

Kai Hsiao

CEO – Eclipse Senior Living

Kai Hsiao is currently the CEO of Eclipse Senior Living, which is a national 3rd party manager of Independent, Assisted, and Memory Care communities across the United States. He also serves as a member of the Argentum Board of Directors, is on the Executive Board of the American Seniors Housing Association and was recently appointed to the NIC Board of Directors.

Kai was previously Senior Managing Director – Senior Housing Properties at HCP Inc., which is a fully integrated real estate investment trust that invests primarily in real estate serving the healthcare industry. Prior to HCP, Kai served as President and CEO of Holiday Retirement, the second largest senior housing operator in the United States. During his tenure there, he held several leadership positions, including: overseeing operations, field support functions, acquisitions, and new business strategy.

Kai graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Arizona.

Anne Tumlinson

Founder & CEO – ATI Advisory

Anne Tumlinson is the founder and CEO of the advisory services and research firm, ATI Advisory. She has 25 years of research and consulting experience in the areas of post-acute and long-term care financing and delivery. Her work has helped organizations respond successfully to payment and delivery reform, and to develop innovative ideas for public policy change necessary to prepare the country for demographic shifts.

Among other affiliations, Anne serves on the board of directors for the Caregiver Action Network, on the Aetna Medicaid Advisory Panel, and on the conference planning committee for the National Investment Center for Seniors Care.

Anne served previously as a Senior Vice President at Avalere Health, where she founded and led Avalere’s post-acute and long-term care consulting practice for 14 years. She created, developed and launched a data-based provider navigation tool for post-acute care placement and led many analytic and modeling projects for a wide variety of clients. Prior to that, she led Medicaid program oversight at the federal Office of Management and Budget.

Robert G. Kramer

Founder & Fellow at Nexus Insights and Co-founder & Strategic Advisor, NIC

Bob Kramer is President and Founder of Nexus Insights, a thought leadership platform dedicated to the dissemination of ideas and models that challenge the status quo and contribute to the transformation of housing and aging services for older adults. Mr. Kramer is also Co-founder, former CEO, and now Strategic Advisor at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC). He is broadly recognized as one of senior living’s most influential and high profile thought leaders and connectors. With over 35 years of industry leadership, he has earned the reputation of “agent provocateur” in the seniors housing and care industry. He has been described as an “ice-cutter” and scout in identifying industries and trends that will disrupt the future of seniors housing, aging services, and aging more broadly. 

In 1991, Mr. Kramer co-founded NIC to advance access and choice in seniors housing and care by attracting capital to grow the sector. Under his leadership, NIC became the go-to resource for data and analytics for the rapidly expanding seniors housing and care industry and an acknowledged thought leader for new ideas and trends impacting the provision of housing, services and care for older adults. Mr. Kramer stepped out of the CEO role in 2017 and continues to serve NIC as Strategic Advisor. 

In 2019, Mr. Kramer conceived of and championed “The Forgotten Middle,” a landmark study of the health and socioeconomic status of middle-income adults who will be 75+ in 2029 and their ability to afford private pay seniors housing. The report on the study, published in Health Affairs, was the 5th most read article appearing in this leading health policy monthly journal in 2019. 

In April 2020, Mr. Kramer launched Nexus Insights to “rethink aging from every angle.” The organization engages a network of leading thinkers and thinking leaders to provide provocative insights and actionable models to catalyze the next generation of housing and aging services. 

Mr. Kramer was educated at Harvard and Oxford Universities and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary. 

Sarah Thomas

Executive Strategist -Aging Innovation

Sarah Thomas is an accomplished leader of innovation. She serves as a global aging expert advising startups, large corporations and investors, with nearly 20 years dedicated to transforming the aging experience. Sarah is CEO of the consulting firm Delight by Design, creating age-inclusive products, brands, spaces and experiences that delight the consumer at every age. Sarah has held key leadership positions across the US and Asia, developing and implementing strategic corporate innovation initiatives, including change management. She serves as the Executive-in-Residence at Aging2.0 and a principal consultant in the Nexus Insights firm for aging transformation. She most recently led all commercial activity for Seismic Holdings – a Silicon Valley-based company shaping human potential through integration of apparel and robotics to augment human strength and performance. Sarah’s commercial expertise helped position the organization for esteemed recognition by the World Economic Forum, Fast Company, The Economist and CES.  Prior to Seismic, Sarah led all global innovation for the largest post-acute care provider in the US, Genesis, serving more than 55,000 individuals a day. She combines her Occupational Therapy expertise with her operational, clinical and entrepreneurial experience to inspire global improvements in design and systems innovation worldwide. She designed an innovation center in China as a part of a vitality initiative to improve the health and well-being of global communities. A published author, she serves in multiple advisory positions, sits on numerous boards and is an accomplished keynote speaker on topics like healthy longevity and aging innovations.