About us
Novak Consulting is owned and operated by Ralph Novak who has worked for over 27 years in the senior living industry. He has in-depth knowledge of the senior housing and long-term care services industry nationwide, having consulted for existing communities or potential new developments in 44 states. Ralph has helped hundreds of clients to realize their goals and objectives.
Trained as a demographer and geographic information systems (GIS) analyst, Ralph’s market-research experience includes project management, the development of customized projections of market depth and demand, and primary-data collection methodologies and processes including survey design and analysis, sample selection, and focus group design, moderation, and analysis.
Ralph has participated in industry-based research projects, including Project NameStorm, the effort to rebrand CCRCs (as “Life Plan Communities”). In addition, he has presented research papers at LeadingAge, and various state organizations.
Ralph completed both undergraduate and graduate work at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), focusing on geography and spatial demography. His career has been exclusively focused on the senior living industry, and prior to starting his own business, worked with Gerontological Services, Inc. (GSI) out of Santa Monica, California; SB&A and Brooks Adams Research out of Richmond, Virginia; and GlynnDevins out of Kansas City, Missouri.
Strategic Partners
Novak Consulting partners with experts in other firms to enhance its ability to deliver the highest-quality and most appropriate analyses to its clients.
Spider Consulting, LLC.
Wayne Hicks
As a Principal for Spider Consulting LLC, Wayne Hicks serves as a lead consultant for start-up, expansion, and operational senior living communities across the nation. Wayne provides overall strategy with sales and development consulting services that achieve long-term success based on his more than 25 years of work experience in senior living, Active Adult, and real estate.
Since starting Spider Consulting, LLC late in 2020, Wayne has worked with more than 25 clients across 15 states representing more than 60 engagements such as sales training, marketing/sales reviews (audits), pricing/competitive studies, priority program development, market insights studies and ongoing sales leadership engagements.
Wayne has more than 30 years of experience in marketing, sales, and advertising with an emphasis in working with Single-Site Life Plan Communities, Multi-site Providers, Stand- Alone Assisted Living/Memory Care communities, For-Profit Developers, Economic Development Localities and National Builders across the country.
Wayne also worked on an array of national consumer and packaged goods accounts for McCabe & Co. in New York City. He completed his undergraduate degree in business management from Binghamton University, State University of New York, Binghamton, and his MBA at the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond.
Looking Glass Marketing Insights
Connie Mattox
Connie Mattox has more than 20 years of experience as a market researcher, with an expertise in consumer behavior research and market feasibility.
Connie served for more than seven years as CEO of Brooks Adams Research, a leading research firm also focused on the senior housing industry. Under her leadership, Brooks Adams Research was acquired by GlynnDevins.
Connie has worked with hundreds of senior living providers across the country to evaluate market potential and consumer appeal for proposed new senior housing developments, expansions, and community repositioning.