Future Leader: Jono Bowles, Industry Product Manager – Healthcare & Director Of Industry Solutions, Ottimate

Jono Bowles, Industry Product Manager – Healthcare & Director of Industry Solutions at Ottimate, has been named to the Future Leaders Class of 2026 by Senior Housing News.

To become a Future Leader, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be a high-performing employee who is 40 years of age or younger, a passionate worker who knows how to put vision into action, and an advocate for older adults and the committed professionals who ensure their well-being.

Bowles sat down with Senior Housing News to share what drew him to the senior housing & senior living industry, the biggest leadership lessons he has learned, his thoughts on the future of senior housing & senior living, and much more. To learn more about the Future Leaders Awards program, visit https://futureleaders.wtwhmedia.com/.

SHN: What drew you to the senior housing & senior living industry?

Bowles: What initially drew me to senior living was the opportunity to apply my healthcare technology experience to an industry that has an incredibly meaningful mission. Earlier in my career, I worked with large hospitals and health systems (and loved that, too), but I have found a real sense of purpose in my current focus on senior living. It’s an industry that doesn’t always receive the attention it deserves, yet it plays such a vital role for millions of families.

What has kept me here, though, is the people. I’ve had the privilege of getting to know operators, finance leaders, and caregivers who work tirelessly to improve the lives of older adults. Their dedication is remarkable, and it’s motivating to build products that make even a small part of their day easier.

The work is personal for me as well. My mom has spent years in a long-term care setting, and before that, my grandparents also received long-term care. Experiencing senior living as a family member has given me a deep appreciation for the trust families place in these organizations and the compassion required to deliver exceptional care every day.

As a product manager, I believe technology must empower the people providing that care, not add complexity. If we can reduce administrative work and streamline financial operations behind the scenes, we’re helping organizations spend more of their time and resources where they matter most: their residents.

SHN: How would you describe your leadership style, and how has it changed over time?

Bowles: My leadership style is grounded in leading by example and staying close to the work. I’ve always believed credibility comes from understanding the details – not just setting direction, but being willing to engage with the hardest problems alongside the team.

In my current role as an Industry Product Manager, that also means connecting directly with our customers. A big part of my responsibility is deeply understanding senior living operators: both their back-office and financial workflow, and the challenges they face day-to-day. Staying close to that reality is what allows me to translate customer needs into product decisions that are useful in practice, not just in theory. For me, leadership in product is largely about reducing the distance between customer reality and product decisions.

One example of that was recognizing how often protected health information (PHI) shows up in back-office workflows, particularly on invoices. Working closely with senior living operators, we helped design and launch a PHI redaction capability that automatically identifies and removes PHI from invoices, helping streamline processing and reducing compliance risk.

Early in my career, I was fortunate to work with leaders who embodied servant leadership. Their focus on removing obstacles, listening deeply, and creating space for others to do their best work shaped how I lead today. At its core, I try to balance staying grounded in the realities of the customer with empowering teams to operate with autonomy and ownership.

SHN: What is the biggest leadership lesson you’ve learned while serving the senior housing & senior living industry?

Bowles: One of the biggest leadership lessons I’ve learned in senior living is that there is no single “starting point” when it comes to technology maturity. Operators vary widely in how they use systems, workflows, and automation, not because of resistance, but because of the different realities, constraints, and histories of each organization.

That has reinforced for me the importance of meeting customers where they are. As a product leader, it’s easy to assume the goal is to drive standardization as quickly as possible. But in practice, progress happens when you design solutions that respect existing workflows while still guiding teams toward better, more efficient ways of working over time.

In senior living especially, change management is just as important as the technology itself. These organizations are focused on delivering consistent, high-quality care, often with lean administrative teams. If a solution feels disruptive or forces too much change at once, even if it’s technically “better,” it can create friction that slows adoption and ultimately limits impact.

The most effective approach I’ve seen is to make incremental progress by building trust, delivering value quickly, and then expanding from there. When you do that well, technology adoption becomes a journey that ultimately supports better care for residents and less administrative burden for staff.

SHN: In one word, how would you describe the senior housing & senior living industry and why?

Bowles: Humanity.

At its core, senior living is about people caring for people: residents, families, caregivers, and operators all working within a deeply personal, high-trust environment.

Even as technology and operations evolve, the most important constant is the human element. Every process, system, and workflow ultimately traces back to someone trying to provide better care or make life a little easier for a resident or their family.

That’s what makes the industry so meaningful to work in, and also why I think it requires such thoughtful approaches to product and leadership. If you lose sight of the human side, you miss what actually makes the industry work.

SHN: What do you see as the biggest opportunities and challenges currently facing the senior housing & senior living industry?

Bowles: One of the biggest dynamics shaping senior living right now is the combination of growing demand and increasing operational complexity. The aging population in the United States is creating sustained demand for senior housing and care services over the coming years. That long-term growth outlook is driving both urgency and opportunity for operators to scale and evolve.

At the same time, the industry is navigating meaningful challenges, particularly around staffing. Many organizations are working through persistent shortages across both care and administrative roles, which adds pressure on already lean teams and makes operational consistency harder to maintain. In many communities, teams are doing more with less across both care and back-office functions. Rising costs and increasing financial and regulatory complexity only add to that strain.

We’re also seeing continued evolution in ownership and operating models, with more consolidation and larger multi-site organizations becoming more common. That shift can create opportunities for standardization and investment in better systems, but it also increases the complexity of integrating people, processes, and technology across organizations.

From my perspective in healthcare technology, one of the biggest opportunities lies in helping address these pressures through better systems and automation. If we can reduce the administrative burden on understaffed teams, especially in areas like finance and back-office operations, it allows caregivers and operators to focus more of their time on residents and care delivery, where it matters most.

SHN: If you had a crystal ball, what do you think will impact the senior housing & senior living industry over the next 5-10 years?

Bowles: Over the next 5–10 years, I think the senior living industry will be shaped by a few reinforcing forces that are already in motion today.

The first is sustained demand growth driven by an aging population. That will continue to put pressure on the system, not just in terms of capacity, but in the ability of operators to scale care delivery consistently across more communities and more complex resident needs.

The second is the ongoing workforce challenge. Staffing shortages across both clinical and administrative roles are likely to remain one of the most defining constraints for the industry. That will force organizations to rethink how they structure work, how they support employees, and where they can use technology to reduce unnecessary burden.

The third is the continued evolution of technology, particularly around automation and AI. I don’t think the biggest impact will come from any single “breakthrough” tool, but rather from the gradual removal of manual, fragmented processes that still exist across finance, operations, and care-adjacent workflows. The organizations that win will be the ones that successfully translate technology into real operational relief for their teams.

More broadly, I think we’ll see a shift toward more standardized, data-driven operations across the industry. Not at the expense of the human side of care, but in service of it, so that staff can spend less time on administrative complexity and more time focused on residents.

SHN: In your opinion, what qualities must all Future Leaders possess?

Bowles: In my opinion, Future Leaders in senior living need a combination of humility, curiosity, and a strong bias toward action.

Humility is important because this is an industry where the stakes are deeply human. Whether you’re working with caregivers, operators, or families, you’re operating in an environment where trust is everything. The best leaders recognize that they don’t have all the answers and stay close to the people doing the work every day.

Curiosity is equally critical. Senior living is complex, with a wide range of operating models, systems, and constraints. Leaders who take the time to understand those nuances and really listen to customers and frontline teams are the ones who build solutions that actually work in practice, not just in theory.

Finally, a bias toward action matters because the challenges in this industry are real and immediate. It’s not enough to have thoughtful ideas; leaders need to be able to translate insight into execution, iterate quickly, and continuously improve based on feedback from the field.

The leaders who stand out in this space are those who balance all three by staying grounded in the human side of care while still moving decisively to improve how the industry operates.

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