Over the past few years, many employeesincluding finance professionals and CFOschose to leave their jobs seeking more meaningful or mission-driven work.

Its been a trend that weve seen with executives, as weve approached them on other opportunities, Alyse Bodine, managing partner and global head of the Financial Officers Practice at Heidrick & Struggles, recently told me. 

After a 10-year-career in finance and technology at IBM, Carmelle Cadet made a pivot to working toward financial inclusion. Cadet is the founder and CEO of Emtech, a New York-based fintech startup with the goal to rebuild central banking infrastructure for the Web3 era.

Cadet first joined IBM through an internship program and was hired as a financial analyst. But her path was headed toward leadership. I became the deputy CFO of IBMs Blockchain division when it launched, she told me. When I joined the division, I was on maternity leave, and cramming in Bitcoin lessons on YouTube while feeding the baby, Cadet quipped. But when she returned to work, I hit the ground running.

Cadet thinks blockchain has transformational promise, with its ability to represent an asset virtually, with a clear understanding and transparency of who the owner is, and who holds it at any particular time. For example, CFOs understand how difficult reconciliation is in finance, she says. Thats partly because every number is moving on different systems. Blockchain really changes that.

In her role as deputy CFO she was responsible for facilitating the global product commercialization and financial management strategy. We came up with a product that was targeting the digitization of money, and realized that there were still problems in the system, she says. The regulators and central banks did not really understand what the technology was.

But for Cadet, this quest is more than just academic.

At age 16, she immigrated to the U.S. from Haiti and spent her first years as an unbanked person. If central banks used the technology to digitize paper currency, we could make financial markets inclusive and resilient by design, and create liquidity that benefits small businesses and individuals, she says.

Leaving her corporate job was a very big decision. I spent a lot of years doing research before I jumped in, she says. Cadet started Emtech in 2019. Her son was two-years-old at the time, and her husband was very supportive, she says. But it took her mother some time to come around. Im the only child and my mother told me, No way youre doing this to me when I can tell all my friends that you work at IBM. What is this blockchain thing? 

Covid started spreading just a few months after she took the entrepreneurial leap. It was definitely scary because we didnt have any clients or products at the time, Cadet explains. But our first win was going to an accelerator in Silicon Valley. Though the accelerator gives you the tools to grow your company, you still have to go and pitch your idea to VCs, she says.

Emtech is working with Bank of Ghana, Central Bank of Bahamas, and actively engaging several central banks including Nigeria, the U.S., and Liberia. Weve won two central banks as far as having a pilot, and onboarding them, built the technology, and launched it. The banks wanted to digitize their regulation and compliance practices first, before introducing their own digital currency, Cadet says.

We have raised $4 million now, she says. We are still a seed company. So, pre-Series A. About 70% of our cap table are Black investors and investors from Africa.

The U.S. doesnt have central bank digital currency (CBDC). However, in September, the U.S. Department of Treasury recommended advancing work towards CBDC as part of the White Houses framework on the responsible development of digital assets. But experts say businesses are buying in on blockchain. Our projection is that by 2024, at least 20% of large enterprises will use digital currencies for either payments, stored value, or investments, Avivah Litan, an analyst and vice president at research at Gartner said in June. 

The path of a founder is fulfilling, but it isnt easy, Cadet says. A Black woman being a tech CEO that is VC backed is still rare, she says. A new report by TechCrunch found that in Q3, Black founders raised $187 million, a steep drop from the nearly $1.1 billion they received in Q3 2021, and a decline from the $594 million the cohort raised in Q2. 

Regarding blockchain, finance chiefs need to get on board as its the future, says Cadet. Shes the CEO of her startup, who can also easily put back on the CFO hat as well. 

Have a good weekend.

Sheryl Estrada
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Big deal

The 2023 Workplace Learning Trends Report," released by Udemy (Nasdaq: UDMY), an online teaching and learning marketplace, highlights trends in business skills and learning cultures. The most commonly consumed business skills fell within the categories of communication and leadership, with significant consumption growth in customer experience management (increasing by 449% year over year) and nonverbal communication (increasing 268%), according to the report. The research also highlights top technical and personal skills in demand. The findings are based on data from thousands of Udemy Business learners globally and compare the total consumption of course topics between 2021 and 2022.

Courtesy of Udemy

Going deeper

Here are a few weekend reads:

Carlyle is searching for a new CEO. Here are some internal candidates who want the joband one high-profile external exec who probably doesnt by Luisa Beltran  

"Meme-stock darling Bed Bath & Beyond appoints Sue Gove as permanent CEO amid store closures and stock meltdown" by Lucy Brewster

"Gen Zers dont think theyll ever own a home, and are buckling up for long-term financial instability" by Tristan Bove

"This experts 7-day food and fitness bootcamp will help boost your brain health" by Marc Milstein 

Leaderboard

Here's a list of some notable moves this week:

Ned Segal, CFO of Twitter, was reportedly fired from the company on Thursday following Tesla CEO Elon Musk completing his $44 billion deal to take over the social network, Reuters reported. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Segal joined Twitter in 2017. Before that, he was SVP of finance at Intuit. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, were fired as well, according to reports.

Celeste Mellet, CFO at Evercore (NYSE: EVR), an investment banking advisory firm, will depart the company for the position of partner and CFO at Global Infrastructure Partners, an independent infrastructure investor. Evercore will begin a formal search process for its next CFO. Mellet, who began her role in July 2021, will stay on and work with the Evercore team into February 2023. Before joining Evercore, she was EVP and CFO at Fannie Mae.

Georges Elhedery was named CFO at HSBC Holdings PLC and an executive director of the board of directors, effective Jan. 1, 2023. Ewen Stevenson will be stepping down as CFO and executive director on Dec. 31., and will leave HSBC in April 2023. Elhedery most recently served as co-CEO of global banking and markets. He joined HSBC in 2005 as a senior global markets executive.

Sudhanshu Priyadarshi was named CFO at Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. (Nasdaq: KDP), effective Nov. 14. He will lead the finance and information technology organizations. Priyadarshi was most recently CFO at Vista Outdoor Inc. He started his career at PepsiCo, where he spent 14 years in roles, including as CFO of global R&D and PepsiCo Global Nutrition Platforms. He also previously was CFO of Flexport and held a VP of finance and strategy role  at Walmart.

Brad Nagel was named CFO at Electromed, Inc. (NYSE American: ELMD), an airway clearance technology provider, effective Nov. 14. Most recently, Nagel held the position of divisional CFO of global lung health and visualization at Medtronic. Before that, he held various roles of increasing responsibility in finance at Medtronic, Target Corporation, and TCF Bank.

Overheard

The $44 billion price tag for Twitter will go down as one of the most overpaid tech acquisitions in the history of M&A deals on the Street in our opinion. Musk buying Twitter remains a major head-scratcher.

Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives wrote in a Thursday note to clients, Fortune reported.

The COVID-19 pandemic devastated poor childrens well-being, not just by closing their schools, but also by taking away their parents jobs, sickening their families and teachers, and adding chaos and fear to their daily lives.

The scale of the disruption to American kids education is evident in a district-by-district analysis of test scores shared exclusively with The Associated Press. The data provide the most comprehensive look yet at how much schoolchildren have fallen behind academically.

The analysis found the average student lost more than half a school year of learning in math and nearly a quarter of a school year in reading with some district averages slipping by more than double those amounts, or worse.

Online learning played a major role, but students lost significant ground even where they returned quickly to schoolhouses, especially in math scores in low-income communities.

When you have a massive crisis, the worst effects end up being felt by the people with the least resources, said Stanford education professor Sean Reardon, who compiled and analyzed the data along with Harvard economist Thomas Kane.

Some educators have objected to the very idea of measuring learning loss after a crisis that has killed more than 1 million Americans. Reading and math scores dont tell the entire story about whats happening with a child, but theyre one of the only aspects of childrens development reliably measured nationwide.

Test scores arent the only thing, or the most important thing, Reardon said. But they serve as an indicator for how kids are doing.

And kids arent doing well, especially those who were at highest risk before the pandemic. The data show many children need significant intervention, and advocates and researchers say the U.S. isnt doing enough.

Together, Reardon and Kane created a map showing how many years of learning the average student in each district has lost since 2019. Their project, the Education Recovery Scorecard, compared results from a test known as the nations report card with local standardized test scores from 29 states and Washington, D.C.

In Memphis, Tennessee, where nearly 80% of students are poor, students lost the equivalent of 70% of a school year in reading and more than a year in math, according to the analysis. The districts Black students lost a year-and-one-third in math and two-thirds of a year in reading.

For church pastor Charles Lampkin, who is Black, it was the effects on his sons reading that grabbed his attention. He was studying the Bible with them one night this fall when he noticed his sixth and seventh graders were struggling with their junior Bible editions written for a fifth grade reading level. They couldnt get through it, Lampkin said.

Lampkin blames the year and a half his sons were away from school buildings from March 2020 until the fall of 2021.

They werent engaged at all. It was all tomfoolery, he said.

Officials with the local district, Shelby County Public Schools, did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails requesting comment. According to district presentations, Shelby County schools last year offered tutoring to the lowest-performing students. Most students who received tutoring focused on English language arts, but not math. Lampkin said his sons have not been offered the extra help.

The amount of learning that students lost or gained, in rare cases over the last three years varied widely. Poverty and time spent in remote learning affected learning loss, and learning losses were greater in districts that remained online longer, according to Kane and Reardons analysis. But neither was a perfect predictor of declines in reading and math.

In some districts, students lost more than two years of math learning, according to the data. Hopewell, Virginia, a school system of 4,000 students who are mostly low-income and 60% Black, showed an average loss of 2.29 years of school.

This is not anywhere near what we wanted to see, Deputy Superintendent Jay McClain said.

The district began offering in-person learning in March 2021, but three-quarters of students remained home. There was so much fear of the effects of COVID, he said. Families here were just hunkered down.

When schools resumed in the fall, the virus swept through Hopewell, and half of all students stayed home either sick or in quarantine, McClain said. A full 40% of students were chronically absent, meaning they missed 18 days or more.

The pandemic brought other challenges unrelated to remote learning.

In Rochester, New Hampshire, students lost nearly two years in reading even though schools offered in-person learning most of the 2020-2021 school year. It was the largest literacy decline among all the districts in the analysis.

The 4,000-student district, where most are white and nearly half live in poverty, had to close schools in November 2020 when too few teachers could report for work, Superintendent Kyle Repucci said. Students studied online until March 2021, and when schools reopened, many chose to stay with remote learning, Repucci said.

Students here were exposed to things they should never have been exposed to until much later, Repucci said. Death. Severe illness. Working to feed their families.

In Los Angeles, school leaders shuttered classrooms for the entire 2020-2021 academic year, yet students held their ground in reading.

Its hard to tell what explains the vastly different outcomes in some states. In California, where students on average stayed steady or only marginally declined, it could suggest that educators there were better at teaching over Zoom or the state made effective investments in technology, Reardon said.

But the differences could also be explained by what happened outside of school. I think a lot more of the variation has to do with things that were outside of a schools control, Reardon said.

Now, the onus is on Americas adults to work toward kids recovery. For the federal government and individual states, advocates hope the recent releases of test data could inspire more urgency to direct funding to the students who suffered the largest setbacks, whether its academic or other support.

School systems are still spending the nearly $190 billion in federal relief money allocated for recovery, a sum experts have said fails to address the extent of learning loss in schools. Nearly 70% of students live in districts where federal relief money is likely inadequate to address the magnitude of their learning loss, according to Kane and Reardons analysis.

The implications for kids futures are alarming: Lower test scores are predictors of lower wages, plus higher rates of incarceration and teen pregnancy, Kane said.

It doesnt take Harvard research to convince parents whose children are struggling to read or learn algebra that something needs to be done.

At his church in Memphis, Lampkin started his own tutoring program three nights a week. Adults from his congregation, some of them teachers, help around 50 students with their homework, reinforcing skills and teaching new ones.

We shouldnt have had to do this, Lampkin said. But sometimes you have to lead by example.

It has been a month since Hurricane Ian wiped out parts of southwest Florida. Now multimillion-dollar cleanup contracts are generating new tempests in the Category 4 storms wake.

Contractors who remove debris and perform post-storm repairs are fighting over local government contracts that could be worth tens of millions in tax dollars. The skirmishes offer a preview of likely fights over local, state and federal funds that will be distributed over the next several months to help southwest Florida get back on its feet.

A case in point is the recent contentious expansion of a land-based storm debris removal contract that had been put out to bid well before the hurricane. Coincidentally, the contract was awarded to Crowder-Gulf Joint Venture just days after Ian made landfall at the countys Cayo Costa State Park on Sept. 28.

In response to the wide hurricane damage, county officials expanded the contracts scope on Oct. 2 to include waterways and private property.

Disposing quickly of downed trees, blown-off roof shingles and shredded drywall is one of the most challenging but important parts of hurricane recovery. County officials want to get the job done speedily since local governments get direct payment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the cost of debris picked up within 60 days of a storm. Officials estimate Lee County has 1.8 million cubic yards of storm debris.

We are bumping up against some very important timelines, Lee County Commissioner Ray Sandelli said at a recent meeting.

But Bart Smith, an attorney for one of the contractors that lost the bid to Crowder-Gulf Joint Venture, told Lee County commissioners that not putting the extra work contained in the contracts expansion out to bid put them at risk of a clawback, which is when FEMA takes back previously awarded money.

Decisions are always made after storms, and these are emergencies, but you have to understand that hindsight is 20-20 and FEMA, when they do all these reimbursements years later and review it and audit it and then tell you you have to give the money back, there are ramifications, Smith said.

Daniella Sanabria, an attorney for another rival contractor, also warned commissioners about a possible clawback, saying the expansion of the debris-removal contract to cover waterways and private properties was anti-competitive.

In light of Hurricane Ian, its an enormous addition to the contracts scope, potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Sanabria said. Its being improperly and uncompetitively awarded.

The federal government regularly claws back disaster money that it believes was incorrectly distributed or when procedures werent followed correctly. Federal agencies tried to take back $73 million from more than 1,800 New Jersey households that received federal disaster monies from Superstorm Sandy a decade ago. After Hurricane Irma in 2017, FEMA claimed $4.3 million in clawbacks from Lake Worth Beach, Florida.

Officials have estimated the damage caused by Ian in Florida and North Carolina at anywhere from $40 billion to $70 billion, making it among the costliest storms ever to hit the U.S. At least 119 deaths in Florida are attributable to the storm.

Lee Countys manager, Roger Desjarlais, dismissed the complaints, saying that vendors who dont get a piece of the pie will try to muddy the waters because so much money is at stake in hurricane cleanup efforts.

Every time, disaster politics takes over at some point because there is so much money to be made by some of these companies, millions of dollars, Desjarlais said.

Because the money awarded for cleanup is so large, it can be an easy target for corruption. In Bay County, Florida, where a Category 5 storm, Hurricane Michael, made landfall in 2018, 10 businessmen and high-ranking officials from the city of Lynn Haven were indicted on charges of theft or fraud for allegedly overbilling or billing for cleanup work that was never performed. Federal prosecutors have obtained guilty pleas from seven of the 10 defendants.

Douglass Whitehead, Lee Countys solid-waste director, said the new, expanded contract with Crowder is cheaper per truckload than the old contract, under which costs had risen due to inflation. He said expanding a contract already in place provides continuity in an emergency situation.

But two of the five commissioners said no to the deal when it came up for a vote last week.

Im going to vote against the motion, Commissioner Brian Hamman said at the time. I dont feel comfortable with the way its gone down.

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Businesses are increasingly worried about the renewed threat of a railroad strike after two unions rejected their deals, and they want the Biden administration and Congress to be ready to intervene.

A coalition of 322 business groups from a variety of industries signed off on a letter to President Joe Biden Thursday urging him to make sure the deals he helped broker last month get approved because a railroad strike would have dire consequences for the economy. All 12 rail unions must approve their agreements to prevent a strike next month.

It is paramount that these contracts now be ratified, as a rail shutdown would have a significant impact on the U.S. economy and lead to further inflationary pressure, wrote the group, which includes nearly every major trade group and quite a few state business associations.

Biden has been watching the contract dispute closely and appointed a special board of arbitrators this summer to try to help resolve it, but the White House hasnt said whether he will get personally involved again.

The railroads have offered 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses in the five-year deal, which would be the biggest increases in more than four decades, but the negotiations hinge on quality-of-life concerns. The unions that represent the conductors and engineers who drive the trains want the railroads to ease the punishing schedules that they say keep them on call 24-7, and the other unions want the railroads to add paid sick time.

A strike isnt imminent because the two unions that voted down their deals agreed to retry negotiations before considering a walkout, but the railroads face a Nov. 19 deadline with one of those unions. Six smaller unions have approved their deals while four others are set to vote over the next month, including the two biggest ones and the engineers and conductors in those two unions have the most quality-of-life concerns.

The head of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division union that rejected its agreement earlier this month said if the railroads wont consider adding sick time he has no choice but to prepare for a strike next month. Union President Tony Cardwell said railroad executives continue to bow to Wall Streets continued desire for more than its fair share as they report billions in profits.

Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, BNSF, Kansas City Southern, CSX and the other railroads want any deal to closely follow the compromises recommended by arbitrators Biden appointed, so they have rebuffed all pleas for paid sick time. The industry also argues that the unions opted to forego paid sick leave over the years in favor of higher wages and strong short-term disability benefits that kick in as soon as four days into an absence and can continue up to a year.

Ian Jefferies, who leads the Association of American Railroads trade group, said Thursday the BMWEDs recent proposal was not a realistic offer because the union simply demanded more and they did so with full knowledge that the railroads would not agree.

If both sides cant agree on a deal, Congress may step in and block a strike. The American Fuel and Petrochemical Makers, which endorsed Thursdays letter, is already lobbying lawmakers to make sure theyre ready to act because refineries rely on railroads to deliver more than 300,000 barrels of crude oil and other chemicals every day.

Were heavily stressing the need to avoid a strike at all costs not just for our industry. Its going to affect every industry said Rob Benedict, vice president of midstream for the AFPM.

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On Oct. 4, Elon Musk reversed himself and offered to honor his original proposal to buy Twitter for $44 billion a deal he had spent the previous several months trying to wriggle out of. He made the latest offer just two weeks before a Twitter lawsuit aimed at forcing Musk to go through with the deal was scheduled to go to trial in Delaware Chancery Court. After receiving Musks offer, Twitter said it intends to close the transaction.

The two parties now have to close the deal by Friday. If they dont, the Delaware Chancery Court judge overseeing the case plans to reschedule the trial in November.

If the case has your head spinning, heres a quick guide to the major events in the saga featuring the billionaire Tesla CEO and the social platform.

January 31: Musk starts buying shares of Twitter in near-daily installments, amassing a 5% stake in the company by mid-March.

March 26: Musk, who has tens of millions of Twitter followers and is active on the site, says he is giving serious thought to building an alternative to Twitter, questioning the platforms commitment to free speech and whether Twitter is undermining democracy. He also privately reaches out to Twitter board members including his friend and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

March 27: After privately informing Twitter of his growing stake in the company, Musk starts conversations with its CEO and board members about potentially joining the board. Musk also mentions taking Twitter private or starting a competitor, according to later regulatory filings.

April 4: A regulatory filing reveals that Musk has rapidly become the largest shareholder of Twitter after acquiring a 9% stake, or 73.5 million shares, worth about $3 billion.

April 5: Musk is offered a seat on Twitters board on the condition he amass no more than 14.9% of the companys stock. CEO Parag Agrawal said in a tweet that it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.

April 9: After exchanging pleasantries and bonding by text message over their love of engineering, a short-lived relationship between Agrawal and Musk sours after Musk publicly tweets Is Twitter dying? and gets a message from Agrawal calling the criticism unhelpful. Musk tersely responds: This is a waste of time. Will make an offer to take Twitter private.

April 11: Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announces Musk will not be joining the board after all.

April 14: Twitter reveals in a securities filing that Musk has offered to buy the company outright for about $44 billion.

April 15: Twitters board unanimously adopts a poison pill defense in response to Musks proposed offer, attempting to thwart a hostile takeover.

April 21: Musk lines up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter. Twitter board is under pressure to negotiate.

April 25: Musk reaches a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion and take the company private. The outspoken billionaire has said he wanted to own and privatize Twitter because he thinks its not living up to its potential as a platform for free speech.

April 29: Musk sells roughly $8.5 billion worth of shares in Tesla to help fund the purchase of Twitter, according to regulatory filings.

May 5: Musk strengthens his offer to buy Twitter with commitments of more than $7 billion from a diverse group of investors including Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

May 10: In a hint at how he would change Twitter, Musk says hed reverse Twitters ban of former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, calling the ban a morally bad decision and foolish in the extreme.

May 13: Musk declares his plan to buy Twitter temporarily on hold. Musk says he needs to pinpoint the number of spam and fake accounts on the social media platform. Shares of Twitter tumble, while those of Tesla rebound sharply.

June 6: Musk threatens to end his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter, accusing the company of refusing to give him information he requested about its spam bot accounts.

July 8: Musk says he will abandon his offer to buy Twitter after the company failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts.

July 12: Twitter sues Musk to force him to complete the deal. Musk soon countersues.

July 19: A Delaware judge says the Musk-Twitter legal dispute will go to trial in October.

August 23: A former head of security at Twitter alleges the company misled regulators about its poor cybersecurity defenses and its negligence in attempting to root out fake accounts that spread misinformation. Musk eventually cites the whistleblower as a new reason to scuttle his Twitter deal.

October 5: Musk offers to go through with his original proposal to buy Twitter for $44 billion. Twitter says it intends to close the transaction after receiving Musks offer.

October 6: Delaware judge delays Oct. 17 trial until November and gives both sides until Oct. 28 to reach agreement to close the deal.

October 20: The Washington Post reports that Musk told prospective Twitter investors that he plans to lay off 75% of the companys 7,500 employees.

October 26: Musk posts a video of himself entering Twitter headquarters carrying a kitchen sink, indicating that the deal is set to go through.

October 27: In a message to advertisers, Musk says Twitter wont become a free-for-all hellscape. He later takes control of Twitter and fires the companys CEO, chief financial officer and general counsel, according two people familiar with the deal.

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Retirement housing is turning into an up-and-coming area of British real estate, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and a growing cohort of investors betting on demand for luxury in later life. 

The US bank is among the backers of Riverstone, a property firm thats building ten blocks of swanky apartments for older residents in London. Goldman Sachs plans to pour 3 billion ($3.5 billion) over the next five years into the firm, which has so far completed two projects in Kensington and Fulham. 

Martin Earp, who became chief executive officer of Riverstone in June, said the Kensington complex rips up the retirement rule book, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a balcony or terrace in each of the 190 apartments, which cost wealthy pensioners as much as 3 million. 

Were seeing a distinct shift in behavior towards retirement from the baby boomer generation to that of their parents, Earp said. We have people who have lived in London most of their lives and want to continue to enjoy the wealth of amenities that are on the doorstep.

While most retirement housing in the UK is built for social renters, the rapidly aging population means there is growing demand in many niches of the market, at a time when a dearth of supply has helped push overall house prices to record highs. Almost one in five people in England and Wales are 65 or older, according to census figures published last year. Almost one in four will be in this group by 2043.

A record 2 billion was invested in UK senior developments in the first nine months of 2022, and the total is set to rise to 3 billion by the end of the year, according to broker Knight Frank. That would represent a 50% year-on-year increase, as backers including UK pension funds and private equity pile into the sector, according to a Knight Frank report published this month.

There is headroom for a lot more investment in senior housing in the coming years, said Oliver Knight, head of residential development research at Knight Frank. The 3 billion is a scratch on the surface of what could be delivered.

Kensington residents become part of the Riverstone Club, which offers access to facilities including a spa, espresso bar, Italian restaurant and private cinema. A gym that monitors intricate details of residents health is also available, as well as sensors and floor-level buttons to alert staff to medical emergencies.

This is a generation that invented the term teenagers, partied at school and university, and they handled their careers differently by moving jobs rather than having a job for life, Earp added. This is what we have already seen in Australia, the US and Canada where integrated retirement communities form a significant proportion of homes for over-65s.

UK pensioners have traditionally been more reluctant to embrace such a lifestyle, with worries about the burden of management fees and lease terms of such developments putting some off. At Riverstone the fixed membership fee for all apartment sizes starts at 1,485 per month.

And Britains economic headwinds driven by rising inflation and a global energy crisis make it more challenging to borrow, which will affect the funding available for new developments. Knight Frank says this could weigh on timescales for investment earmarked for the fourth quarter of 2022.

Still, investors with a longer term horizon see the demographic tilt toward retirees in need of suitable accommodation. Knight Frank polled 54 institutions and found that while only 31% were currently active in the senior housing sector, 67% expect to be active in five years time, the largest projected increase of any sector in the poll. 

There remains a compelling investment case for assets that benefit from changing ways of living, and long-term shifts in demography, such as seniors housing, said Tom Scaife, head of the seniors housing team at Knight Frank. Investors are focused on both development returns and long-term cashflows, which are underpinned by an exploding wealthy senior cohort with the means to downsize.

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Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter and ousted the CEO, chief financial officer and the companys top lawyer, two people familiar with the deal said Thursday night.

The people wouldnt say if all the paperwork for the deal, originally valued at $44 billion, had been signed or if the deal has closed. But they said Musk is in charge of the social media platform and has fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and Chief Legal Counsel Vijaya Gadde. Neither person wanted to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the deal.

A few hours later, Musk tweeted, the bird has been freed, a reference to Twitters logo.

The departures came just hours before a deadline set by a Delaware judge to finalize the deal on Friday. She threatened to schedule a trial if no agreement was reached.

Although they came quickly, the major personnel moves had been widely expected and almost certainly are the first of many major changes the mercurial Tesla CEO will make.

Musk privately clashed with Agrawal in April, immediately before deciding to make a bid for the company, according to text messages later revealed in court filings.

About the same time, he used Twitter to criticize Gadde, the companys top lawyer. His tweets were followed by a wave of harassment of Gadde from other Twitter accounts. For Gadde, an 11-year Twitter employee who also heads public policy and safety, the harassment included racist and misogynistic attacks, in addition to calls for Musk to fire her. On Thursday, after she was fired, the harassing tweets lit up once again.

Musks changes will be aimed at increasing Twitters subscriber base and revenue.

In his first big move earlier on Thursday, Musk tried to soothe leery Twitter advertisers saying that he is buying the platform to help humanity and doesnt want it to become a free-for-all hellscape.

The message appeared to be aimed at addressing concerns among advertisers Twitters chief source of revenue that Musks plans to promote free speech by cutting back on moderating content will open the floodgates to more online toxicity and drive away users.

The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence, Musk wrote in an uncharacteristically long message for the Tesla CEO, who typically projects his thoughts in one-line tweets.

He continued: There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.

Musk has previously expressed distaste for advertising and Twitters dependence on it, suggesting more emphasis on other business models such as paid subscriptions that wont allow big corporations to dictate policy on how social media operates. But on Thursday, he assured advertisers he wants Twitter to be the most respected advertising platform in the world.

The note is a shift from Musks position that Twitter is unfairly infringing on free speech rights by blocking misinformation or graphic content, said Pinar Yildirim, associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School.

But its also a realization that having no content moderation is bad for business, putting Twitter at risk of losing advertisers and subscribers, she said.

You do not want a place where consumers just simply are bombarded with things they do not want to hear about, and the platform takes no responsibility, Yildirim said.

Musk said Twitter should be warm and welcoming to all and enable users to choose the experience they want to have.

Fridays deadline to close the deal was ordered by the Delaware Chancery Court in early October. It is the latest step in a battle that began in April with Musk signing a deal to acquire Twitter, then tried to back out of it, leading Twitter to sue the Tesla CEO to force him to go through with the acquisition. If the two sides dont meet Fridays deadline, the next step could be a November trial that could lead to a judge forcing Musk to complete the deal.

But Musk has been signaling that the deal is going through. He strolled into the companys San Francisco headquarters Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink, changed his Twitter profile to Chief Twit, and tweeted Entering Twitter HQ let that sink in!

And overnight the New York Stock Exchange notified investors that it will suspend trading in shares of Twitter before the opening bell Friday in anticipation of the company going private under Musk.

Musk is expected to speak to Twitter employees directly Friday if the deal is finalized, according to an internal memo cited in several media outlets. Despite internal confusion and low morale tied to fears of layoffs or a dismantling of the companys culture and operations, Twitter leaders this week have at least outwardly welcomed Musks arrival and messaging.

Top sales executive Sarah Personette, the companys chief customer officer, said she had a great discussion with Musk on Wednesday and appeared to endorse his Thursday message to advertisers.

Our continued commitment to brand safety for advertisers remains unchanged, Personette tweeted Thursday. Looking forward to the future!

Musks apparent enthusiasm about visiting Twitter headquarters this week stood in sharp contrast to one of his earlier suggestions: The building should be turned into a homeless shelter because so few employees actually worked there.

The Washington Post reported last week that Musk told prospective investors that he plans to cut three quarters of Twitters 7,500 workers when he becomes owner of the company. The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberation.

Musk has spent months deriding Twitters spam bots and making sometimes contradictory pronouncements about Twitters problems and how to fix them. But he has shared few concrete details about his plans for the social media platform.

Thursdays note to advertisers shows a newfound emphasis on advertising revenue, especially a need for Twitter to provide more relevant ads which typically means targeted ads that rely on collecting and analyzing users personal information.

Yildirim said that, unlike Facebook, Twitter has not been good at targeting advertising to what users want to see. Musks message suggests he wants to fix that, she said.

Insider Intelligence principal analyst Jasmine Enberg said Musk has good reason to avoid a massive shakeup of Twitters ad business because Twitters revenues have taken a beating from the weakening economy, months of uncertainty surrounding Musks proposed takeover, changing consumer behaviors and the fact that theres no other revenue source waiting in the wings.

Even slightly loosening content moderation on the platform is sure to spook advertisers, many of whom already find Twitters brand safety tools to be lacking compared with other social platforms, Enberg said.

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