Dwayne J. Clark, founder and CEO of Redmond-based Aegis Living, has received the Senior Services Lifetime Achievement Award from Senior Services of Seattle/King County.

The award is given annually by Senior Services, the largest non-profit agency serving older people in Washington state. Each year, a group of Senior Services staff and volunteers create a list of nominees from which a winner is chosen.

With a long history of both supporting seniors in the community and creating innovative solutions to improve their well-being, Clark was excited to be chosen as this year’s recipient.

Aegis is a national leader in retirement, assisted living and memory care communities and services for mature adults.

“We are thrilled to honor Dwayne because we both share a similar vision of what aging in the community should look like: positive, energetic, inspiring aging,” said Denise Klein, Senior Services executive director. “We both value the life experience and contribution of seniors, from youth through their golden years. Dwayne Clark is a leader in the field and is shifting ­ for the better ­ the community’s perspective of what growing older looks like.”

Clark has a long history of commitment to the community and to improving senior living, including 23 years of senior housing experience and involvement in the development, construction and management of over 200 senior housing projects.

Raised by a single mom, he was led to a tireless pursuit of running a company in a different way, with staff satisfaction being a driving force. An author of two books, his success in creating an outstanding company culture has been chronicled in many publications. Prior to forming Aegis, Clark was executive vice president of Sunrise Senior Living and spent seven years with LeisureCare.

In addition to receiving this Lifetime Achievement Award by Senior Services, Clark has been honored for his contribution to business and healthcare.

He was named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2007, and an Aging program at Bastyr University has been named the Dwayne J. Clark Healthy Aging Program.