After 12 years with a company-lifer at the helm, post-acute provider Beverly Enterprises will be led by a man with more experience in hospitality and consumer goods. The board of directors of the Fort Smith, Ark.-based company named William Floyd as chief executive officer, effective Feb. 1.
Floyd, 56, has been Beverly's president and chief operating officer since April 2000, and he will retain those titles as well. He will replace David Banks, who will be 64 years old in February. Banks, a Beverly employee for 30 years, the last 12 as CEO, will remain chairman of the board through the end of this year.
Before joining Beverly last year, Floyd was CEO of Choice Hotels International, the second-largest hotel franchiser in the world. He also held senior management positions with consumer goods companies including PepsiCo, the Pillsbury Co. and Gillette. Floyd earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania.
Floyd's varied experience and his "focus on accountability and new business insights that extend beyond traditional thinking in the long-term-care industry" were keys to his initial hiring, Banks said in a written statement. His performance as the company's No. 2 executive led to his promotion.
In the same statement, Floyd noted that Beverly's finances are strong relative to the rest of the bankruptcy-plagued nursing home industry, and he said the company is poised to start a three-year aggressive growth plan. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2000, Beverly lost $7.7 million, or 8 cents per share, because of a $49 million charge taken in the third quarter to boost the company's reserves against potential patient-liability lawsuit judgments in Florida. For the year-earlier period, Beverly lost $102.1 million, or $1 per share. Revenue, at $1.97 billion, was up 3.1% for the first nine months of 2000.
Beverly operates 535 nursing homes, 34 assisted-living centers, 167 outpatient therapy clinics and 58 home-care and hospice agencies.
