Co-Owner, Pietro Jordao

“My grandmother is one of the biggest reasons I decided to become a Home Instead Senior Care^® franchise co-owner with Dillon Rice,” said Pietro, who teamed up with Dillon to purchase the award-winning Home Instead franchise in Victoria, Texas, on Aug. 1, 2020, from Stephanie Niles and Chris Baughman. In April 2013, Stephanie and Chris opened the Home Instead office that serves an area of 32 towns and cities.

Pietro and Dillon met while they were working on their master’s degree in business administration (MBA) at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and became good friends who are now business partners. They have joined a network that is the world’s leading provider of in-home care services for seniors, with more than 1,200 independently owned and operated franchises that provide more than 70 million hours of care annually throughout the United States and 13 other countries. The highly successful Home Instead Senior Care network was founded in 1994 in Omaha, Nebraska, by Paul and Lori Hogan.

While Pietro’s career had been focused on finance and business, he has senior-care experience by having served as a family caregiver for his grandparents in his native Brazil. “I helped with the care of my grandparents. I used to make the eight-hour trip to my grandparents’ home during Christmas breaks, and I’d stay with my grandparents during my summer breaks. I did that for four years. I really enjoyed their company,” Pietro recalled.

Pietro’s grandfather passed away three years ago at age 82, and his grandmother is now 78. They were married for 54 years. Recalling his time with his grandparents before he moved to the United States in 2012, Pietro said: “They were not completely limited. My grandfather’s eyesight was diminished, maybe 30 percent of what it should have been. He still wanted to drive and remain active and independent. I was his co-pilot. I made sure he was aware of the street signs. Serving as a family caregiver for my grandparents wasn’t as intense as being a CAREGiver, but I was on the lookout for my grandparents. I reminded them of things such as going to church. In that sense, I saw them occasionally losing track of time and normal scheduling of routines.”

Pietro’s grandmother is no longer self-sufficient. She now has private-duty caregivers with 24/7 coverage. “There is no Home Instead Senior Care in Brazil. It took a while to find three private-duty caregivers who would rotate during my grandmother’s care. Once she started receiving the help, her quality of life improved 200 percent. They took her to restaurants and to church before COVID-19 became a part of life. They still keep her as active as possible when it has been permitted by COVID-19 guidelines,” said Pietro, who most recently saw his grandmother during the Christmas holidays when he returned to Brazil.

While Pietro’s interests included strong family relationships, he was drawn to sports and schoolwork, and he loves new challenges. As one of Brazil’s top youth tennis players, Pietro played high-level competition while attending Colegio Anglo Americano in Rio de Janeiro. The native of Presidente Epitãclo, Sao Paulo, moved to the United States in 2012. “The main reason for coming to the United States was because I was offered a full scholarship to play tennis for the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders. I was recruiting to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi after its tennis coach saw me at a tournament in Brazil while he was scouting another player. I had never been to America and could not speak a word of English,” Pietro said with a chuckle.

Pietro is a quick study and adeptly picked up English. With a scholarship, Pietro excelled on the tennis courts and in the classroom. He was named to the All-Southland Conference second team as a freshman in 2012. As a sophomore, Pietro helped his team to its sixth straight Southland championship and to the NCAA Championships’ first round. He earned a spot on the Southland Commissioner’s Honor Roll and was named to the Southland All-Academic Team.

Although a dislocated shoulder ended his competitive tennis career, Pietro didn’t miss a beat academically. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in finance in 2016 and immediately entered graduate school to earn his MBA. Pietro worked as an intern at an investment firm, Herndon Plant Oakley in Corpus Christi, for a year, where he assisted a managing partner who oversaw the investment of $1.4 billion in assets. He also was a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, from August 2016 to December 2017, while working on his MBA.

Before taking over at Home Instead Senior Care with Dillon, Pietro served as a fulltime financial analyst for DeTar Healthcare System in Victoria for the past two years. Pietro’s career shift was applauded by his family members, especially his grandmother. “She was very, very happy when she learned I was becoming a Home Instead owner. She is very excited for me. When she told me she was proud of me, it made my day,” Pietro said. 

Pietro said a friendship between Dillon and Chris Baughman sparked the effort to buy the Home Instead franchise. “Chris is an entrepreneur who has several other successful ventures,” Pietro explained. “Dillon and I both want to use our education and skills to help others – that’s our basic tenet. With that in mind. we looked around for business opportunities. We asked Chris for his advice, and he told us he and Stephanie were planning to sell.”

Pietro added: “After we processed the details, I knew Home Instead is exactly what I wanted, and Dillon, too. I know Chris and Stephanie could see we had a heart for senior care, and that made a big difference to them. Seven years ago, it was Stephanie’s baby. They wanted to find the right ownership before moving on. It has a meaning to us because it’s personal. It is a dream come true.”

At age 27, Pietro is a first-time business owner and soon will be a father for the first time. He and his wife, Madeline Carlson Jordão, an elementary schoolteacher, are looking forward to the birth of a daughter around the first of the year. They will celebrate their third wedding anniversary in November 2020. “My wife and I are naming our future daughter ‘Gabriela,’ which is my grandmother’s name,” Pietro said.

While welcoming a daughter, Pietro knows his “second family” will grow exponentially in a sense that he and Dillon will be responsible for taking care of the elderly in the Victoria area just as if they were family. They have inherited a strong office staff and CAREGivers. “When people ask about our goals, it’s fairly simple: We want to get our feet on the ground, and maintain and then grow the quality care that makes this community a better place for everybody, including our clients’ families. We want to improve the lives of the elderly.”

All Home Instead Senior Care CAREGivers are screened, trained, bonded and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (361) 433-0330 or apply online at https://www.homeinstead.com/781/home-care-jobs. For further information, visit our website at https://www.homeinstead.com/781/home-instead-senior-care. Our Home Instead Senior Care office in Victoria serves these other cities: Bay City, Blessing, Bloomington, Boling, Damon, Danevang, Eagle Lake, East Bernard, Edna, El Campo, El Maton, Ganado, Garwood, Goliad, Guy, Hallettsville, Inez, Lolita, Louise, Markham, Matagorda, Meyersville, Midfield, Needville, Palacios, Pledger, Van Vleck, Wadsworth, Wallis, Weimar and Wharton. Our office address is 104 Kelly Drive Suite B, Victoria, Texas 77904.