Mark Thomas receives Lifetime Achievement Award

by Jodi Boyne
LeadingAgeMn.org
Mark Thomas, CEO Emeritus of the Ebenezer Society, received the rare and prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award during last month’s Annual Meeting and Leadership Forum of LeadingAge Minnesota. Mark is the son of Virginia and the late Floyd Thomas, Lake Mills.
The Lifetime Achievement Award honors an individual who is retiring after a career in aging services and whose body of work on behalf of LeadingAge Minnesota and their field, demonstrates uncommon leadership in terms of its reach and impact. Mark is only the eighth person to receive this award in the association’s 50-year history.  
Mark was a dedicated leader with LeadingAge Minnesota throughout his entire 30-year career at Ebenezer. He served as treasurer, chair-elect and chair of the board of directors. As one of the thought and practice leaders of his time, Mark was often asked to share his business practices, his experience and his wisdom with our members.
Mark took the helm at Ebenezer in 1988 at a critical point in their 101-year history. Facing some financial headwinds, Mark drew on his business acumen and entrepreneurial thinking, to forge a vertical integration affiliation with Fairview, creating what is still today, regarded as one of the most successful marriages of a long-term care organization with a growing health system.
Mark then set the stage for Ebenezer’s phenomenal growth by reducing their care center footprint and building a senior housing management and development division, that today operates more than 85 settings in communities across Minnesota. Under Mark’s leadership, Ebenezer has led the field in physician partnerships, new models of rehab care, and expansion of home and community-based services.
Mark also led significant change for LeadingAge Minnesota during his role as chair; years in which they revisited and renewed their partnership with the Minnesota Hospital Association and changed their name from the Minnesota Association of Homes for Aging, to the Minnesota Health and Housing Alliance, to better reflect their broadening and changing membership.
“Mark kept us on the cutting edge of changes in the health care world, stepping forward to lead and educate us along the way. We are grateful to Mark for his years of service and dedication,” said LeadingAge Minnesota board chair, Mark Anderson.