14-Year Tenure Marked with New and Expanded Health Care Services, Affordable Housing Expansion, Growing Research and Teaching Missions, and Strong Fundraising Success
After 14 years running Hebrew SeniorLife, an integrated system of health care, senior living, research, and teaching that serves more than 3,000 Greater Boston seniors each day, Louis J. Woolf has announced that he will retire as president and CEO at the end of June 2023. (Photo: Business Wire)
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE )--Louis J. Woolf, president and CEO of Harvard Medical School-affiliate Hebrew SeniorLife (HSL), an integrated system of health care, senior living, research, and teaching that serves more than 3,000 Greater Boston seniors each day, announces that he will retire at the end of June 2023. Former HSL Board Chair Jeff Drucker, current Governance Committee Chair, is leading the Board Search Committee for Woolf’s replacement.
Since 2009 Woolf has led the Hebrew SeniorLife system that includes Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Boston and Dedham, continuing care retirement communities NewBridge on the Charles in Dedham and Orchard Cove in Canton, three senior supportive housing communities in Brookline, Revere, and Randolph, a wide array of outpatient and home- and community-based services, including home health and hospice care, the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, and an extensive geriatric workforce teaching program.
“Being the leader of HSL has been the opportunity and experience of a lifetime,” Woolf said. “It has been an absolute privilege to work alongside HSL’s dedicated and compassionate employees, board members, trustees, and donors, and I’m so incredibly proud of all we’ve accomplished together to serve our senior community.”
“At age 68 and with five grandchildren, I’m ready to follow the advice we provide all older adults and fully engage in my post-career best life,” Woolf continued. “Also, with the significant changes occurring in our society and in the health care and social services ecosystems, I believe this is a good time to establish a new HSL leader with a longer-term horizon who can steer this amazing organization into the future.”
“We are so thankful to Lou for his thoughtful and steady leadership in strengthening the organization, continually looking to improve the quality of care and services we provide, supporting our academic research and teaching mission, and focusing on our workplace culture so that we’re regularly recognized by our employees as a top place to work in Boston,” said HSL Board Chair Melissa Tearney.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Woolf worked with the Massachusetts Senior Care Association to create and implement a statewide training and accountability program that then had national impact, to prepare and equip staff so they could better protect residents and themselves, and reduce the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes.
According to Charlie Baker, governor of Massachusetts, Woolf’s “ability to stand up and effectively communicate a statewide strategy on this issue was enormously helpful …in the early and very dark days of Covid” in 2020.
During his tenure, Woolf oversaw a period of steady revenue growth, from $150 million in FY2009 to $248 million in FY2021, and increased HSL’s consolidated investment pool from $117 million to the current $198 million while repaying HSL’s $40 million of pension fund obligations. This growth supported an array of new clinical and research initiatives as well as new and expanded senior living communities. Notable organizational accomplishments in support of the HSL mission include the following:
Establishing New Health Care Programs and Centers
Expanding Housing Options For Seniors
Woolf received a B.A. in economics from Brandeis University and an MBA in marketing and finance from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
Woolf began his career in consumer packaged goods management with Gillette, and in 1985 founded Horizon Management Group to offer a full range of services for the financing, management, and marketing of new business initiatives.
From 1995 to 2003, he served in leadership positions in CareGroup Healthcare System, including chief operating officer of New England Baptist Hospital and senior vice president of network development and communications for CareGroup. From 2003 to 2009, Woolf served in Partners Healthcare System as executive vice president and chief operating officer of North Shore Medical Center.
He joined HSL as president in 2009, and was named president and CEO in February 2013, leading the organization’s commitment to redefine the experience of aging in Massachusetts and beyond.
Hebrew SeniorLife, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is a national senior services leader uniquely dedicated to rethinking, researching, and redefining the possibilities of aging. Hebrew SeniorLife cares for more than 3,000 seniors a day across six campuses throughout Greater Boston. Locations include: Hebrew Rehabilitation Center-Boston and Hebrew Rehabilitation Center-NewBridge in Dedham; NewBridge on the Charles, Dedham; Orchard Cove, Canton; Simon C. Fireman Community, Randolph; Center Communities of Brookline, Brookline; and Jack Satter House, Revere. Founded in 1903, Hebrew SeniorLife also conducts influential research into aging at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, which has a portfolio of more than $85 million, making it the largest gerontological research facility in the U.S. in a clinical setting. It also trains more than 1,000 geriatric care providers each year. For more information about Hebrew SeniorLife, visit https://www.hebrewseniorlife.org or follow us on our blog, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Michael Chmura Public Relations Manager Hebrew SeniorLife MichaelChmura@hsl.harvard.edu O) 617 363 8485
Michael Chmura Public Relations Manager Hebrew SeniorLife MichaelChmura@hsl.harvard.edu O) 617 363 8485