Link to May 9, 2025 McKnights Senior Living 
article.
As Loren Shook prepares to hand over the reins of the memory care company he helped build as a model for the industry, his one wish is that the company’s vision to innovate and bring quality of life to residents and families continues beyond his tenure.
“The company has tens of thousands of stories and people whose lives they have dramatically changed,” Shook, co-founder, president, CEO and chairman of Silverado, told McKnight’s Senior Living on Wednesday. “People found purpose and value in their life. Families were connected, and their lives improved. That’s what I would like to see going forward to continue.”
The company, which adopted a culture of “love is greater than fear,” is purpose-driven to change the way memory care services are delivered and to model for the world how to help people live to the fullest to the end of life and not be hampered by fear of risk, Shook said.
Silverado has 28 memory care communities in 10 states, as well as eight Silverado Hospice sites, including palliative care. Shook serves on the American Seniors Housing Association Executive Board and the Vision Centre Advisory Council. He is a former chairman of the Argentum Board of Directors, member of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care Board of Directors and chair of that board’s Operations Advisory Committee, and he has been active on the boards of numerous other organizations.
Wayne Sanner, CEO designate as of April 28, is the “perfect leader” of the organization’s culture, with experience running a large company steeped in a value-based culture, Shook said. Sanner’s experience of developing people while hitting economic targets, and doing so on a large scale, made his resume stand out, he added. Sanner most recently was chief operating officer of Prestige Healthcare and has experience in post-acute care, healthcare, payers and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
“I know that he’s going to take Silverado beyond where we’ve had it, and I’ll be applauding them along the way,” Shook said.
The transition
Sanner told McKnight’s Senior Living that he is taking the first 30 to 60 days of his new appointment to get “infused” into the Silverado culture and systems to understand what the company does and how it does it. Shook said he anticipates that Sanner will want to change and improve things, adding that Silverado brought him in to make the company better.
The transition period also will provide Sanner time to take a deep dive into Silverado Hospice, where he will take over responsibilities first. Then he will be immersed in the memory care communities and assume responsibility for them.
By this time next year, Shook anticipates, he will be passing the CEO mantle to Sanner but staying on as executive chairman of the board, stepping in whenever the company needs a founder presence, particularly when Silverado pursues a new financial partner in 2027. Shook is the last founder standing, as co-founder Steve Winner retired and co-founder Jim Smith passed away.
“I feel a tremendous responsibility to carry the legacy forward that Loren and the team have built,” Sanner said. “It’s a tremendous honor and responsibility to care for the memory impaired and those facing the end of life and doing it with grace and compassion and with courage.”
He said his message to residents, families and staff members is that he values and appreciates and intends to honor the legacy that has been built. Sanner said he wants to live by Silverado’s care values and expand in those areas, including advancing innovation and partnering with organizations to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease and provide daily care for residents.
Sanner said he also plans to bring research and academic expertise to the space and integrate it even more within Silverado than it already is. That effort will include a focus on artificial intelligence and opportunities relevant to memory care, particularly on the business side and in the back office, he added.
“We’re in the people business and care for people,” Sanner said. “My viewpoint is, we’re going to offer opportunities to enhance care and services for our caregivers at the bedside, giving them more time and freedom to truly engage with residents and their families, and not have certain administrative burdens they have today in day-to-day clinical systems.”
Workforce-related issues are one of the biggest challenges he sees for the memory care sector, including personnel availability, skill set and growing demand. But he said he also sees those challenges as an opportunity. Sanner said he hopes to build on the partnerships already in place with the research community to attract future leaders and caregivers.
Silverado also is strengthening and expanding its palliative care services, Sanner said, adding that he will learn about those services in the coming weeks and months.
Carrying on a legacy
When Silverado began in 1996, the world saw memory care as custodial care — a place to keep people safe and clean until they expired, Shook said. He and his co-founders, he added, saw that approach as wrong, believing that people with memory impairment could contribute and wanted to live.
So they started Silverado to give people purpose and meaning in life, as well as respect. Shook said he wanted to create an environment where children and grandchildren would want to come and visit, by using the best of medicine and clinical services.
“We were a total paradigm shift from anything that existed,” Shook said, adding that Silverado brought in the clinical expertise found in nursing homes, but hid it behind a residential model where people could enjoy living. “Before it was custodial care; today, it’s treatment,” he said.
Silverado changed many laws along the way to allow people with memory issues to stay in a residential setting and not be forced to move to an institutional setting such as skilled nursing. Meeting that goal involved having 24/7 licensed nurses, medical directors and social workers on site, which, Shook said, was unheard of at the time.
Silverado was the first US-based organization to earn accreditation from Alzheimer’s Disease International, and the company was the first care provider anywhere to earn accreditation since the launch of the program in 2021.
Shook and Senior Vice President of Clinical Services Kim Butrum, MS, RN, GNP, attended ADI’s global conference in Krakow, Poland, last spring to speak about Silverado’s early-stage brain health program, Nexus, which played a key role in securing the accreditation.
Denmark replicated and implemented Silverado’s Nexus program in eight nursing homes. The program’s pillars are: purposeful social activities, physical activity, stress reduction, cognitive exercise, support groups and specialized digital programs.
Tying up loose ends
One thing Shook said he will continue working on is acquiring properties that the company manages, so Silverado can have permanent ownership and not have to work with other owners.
Silverado lost 21 communities when it separated from a healthcare-focused real estate investment trust. Shook said he was disappointed that those communities have not performed well, saying that many have closed, and the atmosphere is not positive for residents and staff members.
Although some operators, owners and REITs do a great job, Shook said, Silverado has its own model and way of doing things, and he never wants to disappoint residents and staff members again.
“I don’t want to ever have our families and staff go through this again,” Shook said. “We’re here for the long run.”
To advance those plans and have the funding to follow through on acquisitions and new communities, Silverado first has to tie up a legal matter that remains a dark cloud over the company.
The company faced multiple felony charges in 2023 from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office related to an early COVID-19 outbreak. All charges against Silverado and leadership were fully dismissed early in the process, but the DA’s office left the appeal process in limbo, with continual deferrals. That action has prevented Silverado from moving forward with permanent financing on expansion plans.
With a new DA in office, Shook said he anticipated that the appeal would be pulled and he added he was disappointed when that didn’t happen. He said he is confident, however, that Silverado will win as the appeal makes its way through the California appellate process. Oral arguments are scheduled for July, and Shook said he anticipates ending the saga by October.
