Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business and Management named Marilynn Duker, Chief Executive Officer at Brightview Senior Living, the 2019 Business Leader of the Year. The award honors business executives who embody Loyola’s Jesuit commitment to community and service in the leadership of their organization.

Loyola will honor Duker at the annual Business Leader of the Year Dinner on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019, at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore.

"Selecting our Business Leader of the Year offers us an opportunity to recognize a member of the business community who has a distinctive approach to leadership—and whose organization is making a difference in our community,” said Kathleen A. Getz, Ph.D., dean of the Sellinger School. “Marilynn Duker is a leader with strong vision and a deep commitment both to creating high-quality housing and to instilling a wonderful sense of community among the residents who choose Brightview Senior Living.”

In her role as CEO, Duker directs strategies for operations and long-term growth of the business. Duker joined Brightview Senior Living in 1982, which was then known as the Shelter Group. She began her career as a developer and has been involved in every phase of the company’s operations and growth.

Duker serves on the Mercy Health Systems Board of Trustees, the University of Maryland at Baltimore BioPark Corporation Board of Directors, the College of Wooster’s Board of Trustees, and the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing (NIC) Operator Advisory Board. She is a graduate of the Greater Baltimore Committee LEADERship Program.

Prior to Brightview Senior Living, Duker served as a presidential intern at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the College of Wooster and her master’s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Brightview Senior Living has more than 35 award-winning senior living communities in eight states along the East Coast and has over 4,000 employees.