The stream of praise over Monday’s hiring of Clif Porter as the next president and CEO of the American Health Care Association continues unabated, as well it should. The outpouring online has been expansive and effusive.

Without a doubt, however, the most striking message I’ve seen appeared in my inbox. It came in the form of a late-night email from a long-term care giant who never worked at the same company as Porter but who nonetheless calls him a friend and a decades-long colleague.

Larry Lane, the former long-time government relations guru for Genesis HealthCare (among other notable posts), witnessed Porter’s professional rise virtually every step of the way before retiring a few years ago. Lane spoke glowingly of him in various private discussions we’d had through the years and was button-popping proud when I informed him of his friend’s new gig as the industry’s top leader and spokesman.

For starters, he’s a big fan of the diligence exhibited by Porter, who attended high school in suburban Washington, DC. The CEO-to-be will become AHCA’s first Black top executive in its 75-year history, a fact that is neither the linchpin to his ascendancy, nor anything he has shrunk from. 

“One of Clif’s great strengths is his perseverance,” Lane wrote. “Not many know that Clif was the first Black to secure a nursing home administrator license in Virginia — we are talking early 1990s. Howard Frailin took a gamble and hired Clif to open a new facility in the outskirts of Richmond — an area that had a very active KKK contingent. The odds were that Clif would fail. He proved everyone wrong and exceeded all expectations — occupancy, employee retention, survey results.” 

The 57-year-old Porter is going to need to tap all such skills and savvy in his term leading AHCA. Nursing homes are under increased regulatory siege, facing dire staffing situations and preparing for a historic wave of elderly patients. And now that the COVID-19 siege has lessened, providers find themselves with a public target on their backs more than ever before.

‘The real thing’

If history is any indicator, industry stakeholders can take heart. Porter capitalized on every opportunity up the ladder. After leveraging his experiences with Medical Facilities of America, he joined ManorCare and opened its facility in Potomac, MD.

“He once again proved he was the real thing. Within a short period of time, the Potomac facility became a model facility — one of ManorCare’s premier centers,” Lane pointed out. 

That led to stints as a regional senior administrator for the chain, and when it was bought by Health Care and Retirement Corporation in 1998, Porter was named a regional director of operations. At the time the newly named HCR ManorCare was the largest skilled nursing provider in the US with annual revenues of more than $2 billion.

In 2004, Porter was asked to become the behemoth’s vice president of government relations, the post he held when I first met him. After nine years at that job, he was primed to take the same position with AHCA, the nation’s largest nursing home association — and the body he will soon preside over as top executive.

But to Lane, the ultimate industry wonk, it’s hardly all about business.

“He is genuine! Clif is warm, personal, and caring,” he wrote me, tossing in details with no extra prompt. “He is an outstanding family man with a loving wife and close-knit family. When his mom took ill a few years back, he took on the responsibilities of tending to her needs.”

Lane went on to regale Porter’s drive and ability to lead by example, mentoring and teaching many professionals new skills and building their self-confidence.

“He has worked his way up from being raised in the historic [Black and economically stifled] Anacostia neighborhoods of Washington, DC, to being on the ‘A’ list of Washington power brokers,” Lane gushed. 

In true hometown-guy-made-good style, Lane also credits Porter with helping his current boss, former Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson, “master the politics of Washington.” Prior to taking AHCA’s top job 13 years ago, Parkinson was saturated in Kansas state political experience but had spent just a year working in the nation’s capital, as a congressional aide before starting law school. 

The top graduate in his law school class and an accomplished businessman and politician in his own right, Parkinson probably would have risen to be on the multiple Washington Top Lobbyist lists he eventually landed on. But then again, it was he who recruited Porter to his AHCA team, and thereafter both of their Beltway careers soared.

“He has been an essential player during the Parkinson Era,” Lane said in summary. “I am so excited for Clif and for AHCA. I have no doubts that he will rise to the challenges.”

James M. Berklan is McKnight’s Long-Term Care News’ Executive Editor and a Best Commentary award winner in the 2024 Neal Awards, which are given annually for the nation’s best specialized business journalism.

Opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News columns are not necessarily those of McKnight’s.