Joel Nelson was promoted to president and chief operating officer of LCS in November 2014. Nelson joined the Des Moines-based senior living company 28 years ago, and in the past several years as chief development officer has quarterbacked the company’s expansion efforts. He leads the company with Ed Kenny, who in November became chairman and CEO. In his new role, Nelson is responsible for all operations of the company, which employs more than 23,000 people in 30-plus states, including about 225 employees at its downtown headquarters in Capital Square. Through its various lines of business, LCS currently serves more than 30,000 seniors, and it is on a growth trajectory to serve 50,000 seniors by 2020.  

What’s LCS all about?
Our core business is senior living; LCS is a family of companies providing housing and services to the senior housing industry. It’s made up of five companies: a management company, a development company, a home health company, an insurance company and a national purchasing company. And if you were to add a sixth, we now have a real estate company because we have a number of communities we have an ownership interest in. 

How is the company organized? 
We’ve recently taken our management organization and divided it into three divisions. We have a not-for-profit division, which is really where LCS started and continues to be a critical part of our strategic growth plan. Then we have the for-profit CCRCs (continuing care retiremment communities), which have played a key part of our continued growth in the past decade. Now, we’re executing what we call the rental division of free-standing memory care, independent living and assisted living communities.

Tell me about the part you’ve played in LCS’ strategic growth. 
In 2010, we saw a real opportunity to take a more active role in the direct ownership of communities, versus third-party management. I was given the opportunity to step into that role and really drive our investment and capital deployment strategy. A key part of that strategy was product diversification – to add free-standing assisted living, memory care and independent living rental communities. We’ve grown from single digits to over 50 communities that we have an investment interest in. 

Your goals as president and COO? 
It’s really alignnment of all our business lines, and identifying what our next business line will be as we serve our seniors. … We have great ambitions for growth; it’s a key part of our strategy. We are on a path to be serving 50,000 seniors by 2020. There are great opportunities for growth out there. 

What have been some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in senior living?  
When I first started my career back in the 1980s, we really didn’t talk much about Alzheimer’s and dementia, and that disease has become so prevalent that almost all of our communities have memory care units. And the health care piece of our business has gone through multiple cycles of change. And the way we deliver the care and services has changed dramatically. In the old days, you provided care under a very regimented schedule. Today, it’s more about resident-centered care and deinstitutionalizing our care and service for our elders. The other change in the course of my career is the client. The client has become much more sophisticated. As a result, it’s required us to be much more about resident choice. The amenities and services have grown multiple-fold. 

What do you like most about LCS? 
It’s the people that I get to work with every day, and the reward that I get from what we’re doing to enrich the lives of our seniors. That’s really what it’s about at this company; it’s really just a wonderful organization. 

How are you involved in Greater Des Moines?  
I’ve been on the board of ChildServe for the past five years and continue on the board. It’s really doing a lot of things similar to what we do in this business, but at the other end of the spectrum for children and families across Iowa and beyond. I’m very involved with my church, Lutheran Church of Hope. I’ve coached my children’s teams and my youngest is 13, so I’m retiring as a Little League, soccer and football volunteer. 

What are your hobbies? 
It’s mostly family. We’re members at Des Moines Golf and Country Club, and I enjoy the activities there. We like to get at least one family ski trip in a year. This year, we went to Park City in Utah, and that was a lot of fun.