Leadership

John D. Cobb

Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer

John Cobb is an Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of Ventas, Inc.

As a member of the Ventas executive leadership team, Cobb is responsible for the Company’s extensive acquisition, disposition and investment strategy across multiple healthcare sectors including seniors housing, life science & innovation centers, medical office buildings and hospitals. At Ventas, Cobb has facilitated more than $30 billion in accretive mergers and acquisitions while cultivating critical long-term relationships with best-in-care providers and research institutions. He has built an experienced team of 25 tenured investment professionals with a well-earned reputation of using creativity and innovation to execute deals.

Cobb joined Ventas in 2010 after serving as President and Chief Executive Officer at Senior Lifestyle Corporation, a 9,000+ unit retirement company. He spent much of his formative career at General Electric (GE) with roles of increasing responsibility, rising to Senior Managing Director at GE Healthcare where he increased their healthcare real estate portfolio to $10bn in assets.

Cobb serves as a member of the Executive Board of the American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA), the premier source for research, conferences and advocacy for seniors housing. He also serves on the Board of the Geneva Lake Conservancy, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of open space, ecology and history, working with landowners and government officials to advocate private and public land use and management decisions that assure responsible growth and protection of natural and historic resources.

A Florida native, Cobb holds a B.A. in finance from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. He is married with one daughter.

Peter J. Bulgarelli

Executive Vice President, Office; President and CEO,
Lillibridge Healthcare Services

Pete Bulgarelli is the Executive Vice President, Office of Ventas, Inc. In addition, Bulgarelli serves as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lillibridge Healthcare Services (LHS), a fully integrated medical office building (MOB) operating company, and wholly-owned subsidiary of Ventas.

As a member of the Ventas executive leadership team, Bulgarelli is responsible for the Company’s growing integrated Office platform which represents 30% of the Company’s Net Operating Income (NOI) and combines the LHS MOB and university-based life science and innovation center portfolios. Life science and innovation is the Company’s #1 capital priority; a portfolio that has grown by 40% since inception in 2016 and continues to have a robust development pipeline with its exclusive development partner Wexford Science + Technology. LHS is a premier MOB operating company focused on property management, leasing, construction management and advisory services, supporting more than 15,000 physician tenants daily in 27 million managed sq. ft. of MOB space across 32 states.

Bulgarelli joined Ventas in 2018 following a successful 28-year career at Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc. (“JLL”), a global professional services firm specializing in real estate, and most recently leading their industry focused businesses including life sciences, higher education and academic medical centers. Bulgarelli was responsible for the establishment and management of JLL’s integrated healthcare services business, one of their fastest growing business units which averaged a compound annual growth rate of 40 per cent annually over an eight year period.

Bulgarelli sits on the Board of PMB Real Estate Services (PMB RES), and is a member of the Urban Land Institute Healthcare and the Life Sciences Council. He serves as the Chair Emeritus of the Chicago Board of the American Diabetes Association.

A Chicago native, Bulgarelli earned his B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Illinois and received his M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Business. He is married with three children.

Debra A. Cafaro

Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer

Debra A. Cafaro is the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Ventas, Inc., an S&P 500 company and real estate investment trust that owns approximately 1,200 healthcare, research and innovation and senior living properties in North America and the United Kingdom and serves as the premier capital provider to leading care providers and research institutions.

A recognized industry leader, Cafaro set and oversaw execution of a long-term strategy that drove Ventas’s market capitalization to $28 billion in 2019, from $200 million since her leadership began in 1999. The Company’s compound annual total shareholder return (TSR) has exceeded 20 percent for the 21 years ended December 31, 2020.

Widely-acclaimed for her strategic vision and enduring business success, Cafaro has received multiple professional recognitions. Cafaro has been twice named one of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women (Forbes Magazine), a list of global political, media, entertainment and business leaders; a Top 100 Best-Performing CEOs in the World for six consecutive years (Harvard Business Review); and the top female executive in the commercial real estate industry (National Real Estate Investor). She has also been recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare six times (Modern Healthcare); highlighted in The 70 Elite real estate executives who shaped the industry for the past 70 years (Real Estate Forum); and selected multiple times to the Top 25 Women in Healthcare (Modern Healthcare) and the All-America Executive Team (Institutional Investor). Cafaro was named a Top 50 Woman in World Business (Financial Times), one of the Bankable 21 CEOs in Jim Cramer’s book Get Rich Carefully and one of nine Game-Changers in commercial real estate since 2000 (GlobeSt.com). To honor her contributions to her industries, she received the Industry Leadership Award from the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT), where she previously served as Chair, and was inducted into the ASHA Senior Living Hall of Fame.

In addition to her work at Ventas, Cafaro is broadly engaged across business, public policy, academic, sports and non-profit sectors. Cafaro is the Chair of the Real Estate Roundtable, a public policy organization that brings together leaders of the nation’s top real estate firms to address key national policy issues relating to real estate. She is also the Chair of the Economic Club of Chicago whose mission is to foster meaningful connections among the city’s leaders on important economic and social issues. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the Business Council, and serves on the Boards of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC), the University of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and World Business Chicago. She served successive terms on the Board of the Chicago Infrastructure Trust. Cafaro is an owner and member of the Management Committee of the NHL Pittsburgh Penguins, 2016 and 2017 Stanley Cup Champions.

Cafaro established the Cafaro Scholars program at the University of Chicago Law School. The program provides full scholarships to students whose parents did not attend college and who demonstrate outstanding achievement and potential. To date, over 20 students, many of them diverse, have been recipients of the Cafaro scholarships.

Prior to joining Ventas, Cafaro was President of an NYSE-listed multi-family REIT, a practicing lawyer for 13 years and a judicial clerk for the Hon. J. Dickson Phillips, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She received her J.D. cum laude from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was named its 2011 Distinguished Alumna, and her B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame. She is married and has two children.

J. Justin Hutchens

Executive Vice President, Senior Housing, North America

J. Justin Hutchens is the Executive Vice President, Senior Housing, North America for Ventas, Inc.

A member of the Ventas executive leadership team, Hutchens is responsible for the Company’s North American Senior Housing portfolio, which includes more than 700 properties that provide high-quality environments for approximately 60,000 seniors and represents 48% of the Company’s net operating income (NOI).

With more than 25 years of experience in the U.S. and the U.K. including successful C-suite operations in both publicly traded and private equity-backed investments, Hutchens joined Ventas from HC-One where he served as Chief Executive Officer. During his HC-One tenure, he led the company during a significant period of refinement and growth resulting in Britain’s largest residential and nursing care home operator with more than 300 communities in England, Scotland and Wales. Hutchens’s prior roles include serving as Chief Operating Officer of Emeritus, a senior living company that was the largest operator of assisted living in the U.S. during his tenure; Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and President of National Health Investors; and President of HCP (now Healthpeak Properties, Inc.). He began his career in senior care operations.

A frequent speaker on investment practices, company performance and senior housing and care operations, Hutchens was recognized in Forbes Magazine’s Top 20 “Most Powerful CEOs Age 40 and Under” list for four consecutive years.

Hutchens serves on the Board of Eclipse Senior Living (ESL). He earned his Bachelor of Science – Human Services from the University of Northern Colorado and his Masters of Science in Management from Regis University.

Carey S. Roberts

Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Ethics & Compliance Officer

Carey S. Roberts is the Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Ethics & Compliance Officer of Ventas, Inc.

A member of the Ventas executive leadership team, Roberts is responsible for the Company’s legal, compliance and enterprise risk management functions. She also serves as Corporate Secretary and principal counsel to the Board of Directors.

Roberts joined Ventas from Assurant, Inc., where she served as executive vice president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary. Roberts previously served as deputy general counsel, global chief compliance officer and corporate secretary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. Prior to joining Marsh & McLennan Companies, Roberts was a partner in the corporate practice of Covington & Burling LLP where she counseled companies in a wide range of industries, including financial services, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and information technology.

Roberts is a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of The American Alpine Club. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and her law degree from the George Washington University Law School, both with honors.

Robert F. (Bob) Probst

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Robert (Bob) F. Probst is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Ventas, an S&P 500 company and leading real estate investment trust that serves as the primary capital provider to leading healthcare companies and approximately 1200 healthcare, life science and senior living properties in North America and the United Kingdom.

As a member of the Ventas executive leadership team, Probst plays a key role in all aspects of finance, accounting, IT, strategy and investor relations, as well as leading the Senior Housing Asset Management portfolio which represents approximately half of the Company’s net operating income. His focus is on providing clear growth strategies, consistent execution, development of an entrepreneurial culture, and the infusion of top talent to Ventas. He was named the FEI Financial Executive of the Year, Public Company Category in 2019, and the 2018 Public Company CFO of the Year by FEI Chicago.

Probst joined Ventas in 2014 after a career spanning a wide variety of business, financial and geographic roles in publicly-traded Corporations. Immediately prior to joining Ventas, Probst served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Beam, Inc., where he was a key player in establishing the former unit of Fortune Brands as a standalone publicly-traded spirits company in 2011. He served as Vice President of Finance, Strategy and M&A for Baxter International, Inc.’s largest business division, Medication Delivery, and spent eight years with UK-based Diageo PLC, most recently as its Chief Financial Officer, Global Supply in London, England. His early career in finance began with roles at The Pillsbury Company and as a Commercial Lending Officer with The Northern Trust Bank.

Probst is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, and serves on the boards of the Chicago Botanic Garden and Camp Kesem, a nationwide community that supports children who have lost a parent to cancer, have a parent undergoing cancer treatment, or whose parent is a cancer survivor. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Duke University Financial Economics program. Probst earned his B.A. degree with honors in Economics from Duke University and received his M.B.A. degree with highest honors in Finance and Accounting from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.