Optima Living
Optima Living—founded in 2007—owns and operates innovative seniors’ living communities throughout Alberta and BC, taking an unprecedented approach to senior life. Our unique company culture is one where both residents and team members are family.
Optima Living’s North Star, Let us welcome you home, speaks to our underlying principles and the experience seniors discover in our communities. When residents are home, they feel safe, respected, and welcome. Home is where one’s voice is heard, their views matter, and they have freedom of choice.
Optima Living’s mission, vision, and values—respect, dignity, teamwork, and doing the right thing—support and build upon our North Star. Optima Living operates over 2,200 beds providing congregate living options for seniors. These options range from subsidized to luxury, Independent to Assisted Living, Long-term Care to Memory Care, and Residential Mental Health.
Our Mission is to provide intimate, home-style living for seniors. We seek to provide the best quality of life possible by enabling each resident to experience a full and independent lifestyle.
We envision every person feeling at home. Here at Optima Living, we feel it is an honour to work with you and we advocate a resident-centred approach where you, the Resident, are the focus of all our endeavours.
Respect You
Uphold Your Dignity
Work Together
Do The Right Thing
Join Us
Do you share Optima Living’s vision for the future of senior communities? We would love for you to join us!
Our Leadership
Farid F. Damji
He has a master’s degree in Health Administration. He previously held the position of Adjunct Clinical Professor for the Department of Health Care and Epidemiology within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia.
Farid has more than 20 years of strategic and operational experience in complex health care environments, including both hospital and community care settings with the BC Ministry of Health, Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, Fraser Health Authority, and Interior Health Authority.
Karim Kassam
Karim has over 25 years of senior executive leadership experience leading in a variety of organizations leading commercial, sales and corporate development, including extensive experience in hospitality and seniors health care and housing. He also held senior executive officer roles at Ballard Power Systems for 10 years, was a Franchisee at Boston Pizza for over 20 years, and was recognized as one of the top agents in Canada at Colliers International where he led the creation of its multi-family investment division in Edmonton.
He is Chair of the BC Women's Health Foundation, Chair of Effective Pricing Solutions, Vice Chair of the BC Seniors Living Association, and Board Director of the Alberta Continuing Care Association.
Ali Shivji
Ali is an expert in care, housing, design, and programming for seniors, having worked in strategy and operations in both the public and private health care sectors for over 10 years. He has worked with the National Health Service in the United Kingdom and with McKinsey & Company’s International Health Care practice, primarily focusing on international healthcare system redesign. He recently served as the Chief Operating Officer for AgeCare, a private senior care and housing company with 10 sites and over 1,800 beds across Canada.
Natalie Ku
Natalie has previously held senior positions such as CFO, COO, VP Finance, and Controller. She graduated from Simon Fraser University with a CPA, CMA, and a Bachelor of Business Administration. Outside of work, she enjoys travelling, trying new restaurants, and claiming to be a food connoisseur. Natalie is a passionate and caring leader who enjoys learning, developing people and teams, and establishing long-term relationships.
Marjorie Bungay
Marjorie has more than 30 years of experience in the Seniors Complex Care and Housing sectors. With her skills in strategic planning, finance, and food services administration, she has successfully led several interdisciplinary teams. She has been a member of provincial, municipal, and private boards and committees established to provide guidance to the governance of various seniors related organizations.
Melanie Reinhardt
Melanie's goal as a skilled communicator and strategist is to enable her teams to achieve their highest potential. A lifelong learner, Melanie has benefited from many areas of study, including communications, conflict resolution, government procurement, and contract management. She lives in the Okanagan and spends as much time as possible enjoying her kids, grandkids, and the great outdoors.
Wei Li
Wei is a financial professional with more than 15 years of experience leading a broad range of accounting and controller responsibilities. With her accounting knowledge and management skills, she has served in several industries, including both publicly-listed and private companies, and was highly recognized for her proficiency in accounting reconciliations and reviews, financial reporting and analysis, coaching, and leading high-performance teams to ensure maximum accuracy and productivity.
Janice Hall, CPA, CMA
Janice is a finance executive with over 20 years of experience as Controller, including over seven years at Shephard’s Care Foundation and nine years at Deloitte. Her extensive experience in financial reporting and operational management roles has gained her a strong reputation for attention to detail and effectively bridging the gap between operational decisions and financial targets. In her spare time, Janice enjoys golfing and travelling.
Sharon Conway
Our Story
Our Roots
Optima Living took root in 2007, when our founders Karim Kassam and Farid F. Damji, two friends who loved and cared for the seniors in their lives, crossed paths while working at the provincial health authority. They began dreaming of a way to welcome other seniors into a different circle of care, one that truly honoured their own parents and grandparents, who had served as such sources of inspiration. Discovering their shared desire to give back to their community and shared passion for improving seniors’ well-being, Karim and Farid were soon jotting ideas on a restaurant napkin. These ideas evolved into Optima Living and inspired the logo you see here, with its joyful person under a sheltering roof. In 2015, Ali Shivji joined the Optima family as Principal. As part of this added capacity, the principals focused their efforts to grow in the Alberta market and increasingly investing in new innovations and developments.
Our North Star
Since then, our co-founders’ vision of a truly homelike place for seniors has grown into more than a dozen Optima Living communities serving hundreds of seniors and their families across Alberta and BC. At every decision-point and in every community, our North Star is this: Let us welcome you home. Home, where you’re safe. Home, where you’re respected. Home, where your voice is heard, your views matter, and you have freedom of choice.
Let us welcome you home: It’s our invitation to you. And it’s our North Star, guiding everything we do.
Our Grounding Principles
Optima’s mission, vision, and values support and point to this North Star.
Our mission: to provide an intimate, home-style living for seniors. You are the focus of everything we do.
Our vision: every person living in our communities feels at home. Here, you experience the best quality of life possible, and your voice is heard.
Our core values:
• We promise to respect you
• We promise to uphold your dignity
• We promise to work together with you and your persons of choice
• We promise to do the right thing
It’s All About You
Three key ingredients breathe life into our principles: people, place and community. At Optima Living, you’re surrounded by people who welcome you warmly and become your neighbours, friends and care partners. You’re in a place that feels like home, with opportunities to fill your days as you see fit and freedom to explore the neighbourhood. You’re an important part of a vibrant community, engaging in your choice of activities and living with purpose.
Our Chosen Privilege
At Optima Living, we are always on a mission to improve—to learn more about what it means for seniors to be at home in our communities. We reach out to knowledge leaders and community partners who help us offer all the ingredients for healthy, active and fulfilling days. We use our expertise and what we learn from knowledge partners, including the University of Alberta and the University of Manitoba, to incorporate the latest research into your care and advocate for your well-being as needs arise.
Everyone at Optima Living understands the honour and responsibility that comes with serving seniors and their families. Our chosen privilege is to offer not just care but also peace of mind—to “walk with” rather than merely “do for” the seniors who live with us. Whatever your journey, when you join an Optima Living community, you’ve come home.
“We are absolutely committed to making a positive difference in the lives of seniors. For us, that’s the most meaningful work we can do. We believe that if we do right by seniors, then everything else will fall into place.” – Farid F. Damji