Ms. Schmitz is the Head of Principal Investing and Fund Management at Ziegler and the Chief Administrative Officer of the Ziegler Link•age Funds, a venture capital fund family with an investment policy designed to support innovation, collaboration and growth among entrepreneurs and senior living and healthcare providers.

With over 10 years of operating and investing experience, she oversees both operations, and development and execution of the Ziegler Link•age Fund’s strategic value proposition. She also manages the funds’ investment pipeline and leads investment execution, including holding investment committee seats in four venture funds representing, in aggregate, over $150mm in commitments. As a strategic investor, Ms. Schmitz takes an active role with many of the companies in which the Ziegler Link•age Funds have invested, including holding seats on four portfolio company Boards of Directors, Smartcare Software, Cosan, LifeSite, and Embodied Labs.

Ms. Schmitz has a strong foundation in US GAAP, internal controls, and mergers and acquisitions through her experience working in the Audit and Transaction Advisory practices of Grant Thornton. She earned a BBA in accounting and Masters of Accountancy from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, is a Wisconsin Certified Public Accountant and maintains Series 7 and 24 securities licenses.

Scott Collins is the CEO of Link•age and is responsible for its strategic direction and growth. Link•age is comprised of three integrated entities: Link•age Solutions –providing cost containment services to more than 600 senior living providers, Link•age Ventures –investing in companies with products, services and technologies for the aging population and Link•age Connect –delivering market research and insight for organizations seeking to better understand the older adult demographic. Prior to joining Link•age, Scott was a vice president and senior account executive with GE Capital Commercial Asset Funding and held senior management positions in the commercial real estate as well as textile industries.

CEO of LifeSite, Chris Wong is a proven executive and highly-regarded strategist in the enterprise software industry. A Silicon Valley veteran, Chris is an experienced tech entrepreneur and operator.

Over the past 35 years, Chris has held a variety of senior management positions and helped chart and participate in the execution of some of the most successful technology companies. Chris has extensive M&A and business development experience, leveraging a vast network of business partners and resources.

Before co-founding LifeSite, Chris served as SVP Corporate & Business Development for Ooyala, CEO for PathConnect, a new media company; EVP and Chief Product Officer for Agile Software, which was acquired by Oracle in July 2007; and VP of Products and Technology Strategy at Peoplesoft. His startup credentials began with SkillsVillage, Inc. as the Chairman, CEO, and Founder of a company which he led from inception to acquisition by PeopleSoft in June 2001.

Chris has and continues to serve as an advisor to several companies and organizations including Garage Technology Ventures, the Make The Difference Network (MTDN), the Joint US-China Cooperation on Clean Energy (JUCCCE), ThinOptics, Avellino Labs and is a Senior Fellow for The Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center.

Carrie Shaw, MS, is a medical illustrator, public health educator, and CEO & Founder of Embodied Labs, an immersive caregiver training platform.

Founded in 2016, Embodied Labs serves 200+ subscribing organizations including senior services providers, government agencies, hospital systems and corporations to train students, healthcare workforce and informal caregivers. Embodied Labs has been recognized globally for their work by the AARP and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and has been featured in Oprah Magazine, CBS - The Doctors, The New York Times and CNN International Tech for Good.

Through her work building Embodied Labs, Carrie's mission is to accelerate global behavior change for healthier aging at scale by positively impacting the health of self and others through immersive learning experiences.

Rob Wray is founder and CEO of BlueStar Telehealth, a Ziegler Link•age portfolio company. Based in Washington DC, BlueStar provides telehealth services to hospitals, health centers, payors, and the Veterans Administration.

Rob is a retired Navy two-star admiral. He graduated in 1979 as a Mechanical Engineer from the Naval Academy. He spent seven years of active duty as a nuclear engineer on surface ships, carriers, and submarines. Transferring to the reserves, he enjoyed a varied 20-year career in business, in manufacturing, hospitality, technology, consulting, and construction. Later, after mobilization to Baghdad, he was promoted to Admiral, and placed back on active duty for six years, where he served in senior posts in Washington, Naples Italy, and Norfolk.

Rob has a Masters Degree from Georgetown University and an advanced degree from the Naval War College in Newport. He is a licensed professional engineer, holds a patent, has written two books on leadership, and is a frequent speaker on leadership. He is the father of six, and by the end of 2023 will be the grandfather of 12.

Safwan Shah is a serial fintech entrepreneur, the author of It’s About TIME, a 2xTEDx speaker, and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering. Safwan is a board member of Conscious Capitalism and the recipient of CU Boulder's George Norlin Award for his devotion to the betterment of society. Safwan pioneered earned wage access, and his company serves over 3000 US businesses for their employees’ financial wellness needs.

Scott Zielski has extensive sales, marketing, and operational expertise in both corporate and entrepreneurial environments with P&L responsibility and high growth results. Scott is currently serving in the role of CEO, Chairman of the Board, and Founder of Smartcare Software, a digital EMR platform for home and personal care services. He has held various executive leadership roles at Abbott Labs, Hospira, and Pfizer, where he successfully planned and created new company business units and led national and international sales teams focused on pharmaceutical, hospital software enterprise technologies and services. Scott has considerable insight into the sales and market aspects of products and services. Scott’s experience includes fundraising, hiring and managing teams, establishing and managing key business partners, and developing and executing “go-to-market” strategies. Scott currently is an ad hoc professor and business coach at the University of Wisconsin School of Business, teaching sales and marketing topics. 

He received a MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering (AI/ML focus) and an M.B.A. from Marquette University. 

Founded and based in Richmond, VA in late 2021, At Home Harmony delivers an integrated care model comprised of a collaborative team of physicians, advanced practitioners, pharmacists, nurses, care aides, therapists and social workers.

The At Home Harmony platform includes the latest in-home technology and a specialized pharmacy built to help seniors manage complex medication regimens. At Home Harmony is committed to transforming the aging-at-home experience for older adults everywhere. For more information about At Home Harmony, visit www.athomeharmony.com.

Will is a healthcare and long-term care expert with a decades-long track of record of launching and growing healthcare companies that solve intricate healthcare problems for seniors and populations with complex needs.

In 2013, Will founded AllyAlign Health, which focused on improving the quality of care within nursing homes. The company that transformed the quality of care for the frail and elderly who require long term care in an institutional setting, and owned and operated 22+ Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans focused on the elderly. AllyAlign deployed hundreds of clinicians supported by hundreds of plan personnel in the provision of care to thousands of enrollees with specials needs within over 500 nursing homes. In 2021, Will and AllyAlign exited to a multi-billion dollar, premier investment fund in a nine figure transaction.

From 2007 to 2013, Will served in a progression of executive roles for Xerox Government Healthcare Services, culminating in serving as President – directly responsible for the vision, strategic direction, delivery, growth and customer satisfaction for a $1B annual revenue, 9,000 employee enterprise. Xerox Government Healthcare Services, the largest unit of Xerox at the time, contracted with 38 states to administer mission critical components of their Medicaid program.

From 1999 to 2007, Will grew Heritage Information Systems. Heritage developed a ground breaking rules based utilization management solution that evaluated healthcare services at the point of care and a real time pharmacist-centric medication therapy management program. The tech/solution was adopted by over a dozen state Medicaid programs. The company also supported Medicaid states and commercial plans in combatting prescription drug fraud and abuse. Will was appointed President of the company after Heritage sold to a public company that eventually became Xerox.

Earlier in his career, Will was an executive in the physician practice management industry and worked for Price Waterhouse.

Greg currently leads the technology investment strategy for Omega Healthcare Investors (NYSE:OHI) a $7B healthcare REIT focused on senior living communities. His mission is to find innovative companies whose technology improves the lives and clinical outcomes of our senior community.

Greg has 25 years of executive leadership in the IT Services and Software market leading companies through explosive growth, turnarounds, mergers, acquisitions, and strategic sales. As the CEO of two companies, he executed significant turnaround strategies that led to strategic sales. 

Greg has a BA from Bucknell University and an MS from Johns Hopkins.

Matt is the Vice-Chair of Reed Smith’s Business & Finance Department and a partner in its Global Corporate Group. He previously served as U.S. Vice-Chair of the Global Corporate Group and Chair of its U.S. Emerging Growth & Venture Capital Team. Matt’s practice includes leading leading private equity sponsored and strategic mergers, acquisitions, recapitalizations and divestitures. He also represents venture capital funds and corporate venture capital groups with their investments, portfolio company oversight and exit transactions. He serves as outside general counsel to emerging growth and middle-market companies, providing legal and business advice in all areas that affect their organizations (from formation to exit), including capital-raising, corporate governance, securities and corporate finance matters, and joint ventures.

Kent Anderson’s experience includes over 20 years of executive level leadership with a concentration on home-based models of healthcare. Kent has a proven track record of organizational growth and innovation and a deep understanding of healthcare regulatory environment and healthcare policy. His primary focus is on servant leadership to inspire clinicians, staff, and teams toward strategic mission goals.

At Ohio’s Hospice, Kent operates eight Affiliates throughout the state of Ohio. Kent created the company’s not-for-profit hospice affiliation model through membership substitution and its expansion from eight counties in Ohio to over sixty counties. Kent has a focus on aging in place, and created the Pure Healthcare population health organization which allows people to age in place through palliative care service and value-based contracts. Kent also strategically moved Ohio’s Hospice into risk-based reimbursement with first total cost of care contract initiated in 2023.

Laurence C. Gumina serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Ohio Living, ranked as LeadingAge Ziegler’s 18th largest not-for-profit, multi-site senior living organization in the nation. Having joined Ohio Living in 2011, he leads the company’s growth strategy and uses his more than three decades of experience in both the hospital and aging services industries to anchor relationships between healthcare providers, hospitals, insurers and others in order to streamline and advance aging services.

With Mr. Gumina’s commitment to advancing the industry and sharing best practices, Ohio Living has been at the forefront of innovation and progress, embarking on several leading-edge partnerships and creative joint ventures. His focus on long-term growth and success led to the launch of Perennial Consortium, an owner-operated Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plan, and to the creation new business lines, Harvest Grove Pharmacy and Curana Health Medical Group. Organizational alignment has also been a cornerstone of Mr. Gumina’s career with Ohio Living. He spearheaded a rebranding of the organization which included the renaming of the parent company and all of its subsidiaries, including the home and community-based services division and the Ohio Living Foundation. Bringing the entire organization together under the Ohio Living brand has fostered strength, an expansion of services and exponential market share growth.

In addition to serving on the LeadingAge Board of Directors and as Vice Chair of the LeadingAge CAST Commission, Mr. Gumina is on the Board of Directors for Link-Age as well as the investment committee for Ziegler Link-Age Longevity Funds I, II, & III. He also serves on the Senior Living 100 Advisory Board and the University of Massachusetts Boston Gerontology Advisory Committee for the Management of Aging Services Master’s Program. He holds a Master of Public Administration in health care administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island.

Scott Buchanan currently serves as the CEO of the Ohio Masonic Home, an organization that has served Ohio Masons, their families and the public at large since 1892.  He is responsible for managing the vision of the organization, maximizing the value of the entity, and fulfilling the mission to serve as a trusted partner to help people age respectfully. Prior to being named CEO, Scott served as the organization’s CFO for 3 years. 

Scott has more than twenty years’ experience as an auditor, business manager and financial officer with privately-held companies, as well as publicly-held corporations in the health care industry.  A large portion of his professional career has been spent helping clients in the areas of corporate finance, process re-engineering, strategic planning, and IT infrastructure.  Before joining the Ohio Masonic Home, Scott worked for Premier Health Partners in Dayton for nearly 15 years, in several different capacities, with a focus on corporate finance projects and developing and implementing new systems to optimize revenue and efficiency.  He also served in the United States Air Force – Ohio Air National Guard for eight years.

Scott currently resides in Vandalia, Ohio with his wife, Katrina, and their two sons, Dillon and Connor and is very active in the community.