View This Issue - Panama City Beach Chamber of Commerce
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<strong>of</strong> the Greater Rome <strong>Chamber</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Commerce</strong>.<br />
Here, Carlton was very involved<br />
with chairing inner-city visits. “We would<br />
look at cities <strong>of</strong> like size that were a couple<br />
<strong>of</strong> steps ahead <strong>of</strong> us,” he explains. “We met<br />
with their legislators, city government and<br />
educators to try and understand how they<br />
made it happen. Then we’d bring that back<br />
to our community, and instituted it.” The<br />
Greater Rome <strong>Chamber</strong> was successful<br />
in bringing in Lowe’s Distribution Center<br />
(with 600 new jobs) this year, as well as<br />
Suzuki <strong>of</strong> North America, Pirelli and other<br />
national corporate locations.<br />
Carlton began his hospital administration career<br />
in 1996 at Harbin Clinic in Rome, a 160-<br />
physician multi-specialty physician group.<br />
“I had an opportunity to pursue my MBA<br />
and move into an administrative role with<br />
Harbin Clinic,” he says. In 2001, he moved<br />
to New Orleans and worked at the Tulane<br />
University Hospital and Clinic, where he<br />
managed service lines, overseeing the transplant,<br />
cardiology, oncology, rehabilitation<br />
and orthopedic divisions. While in New<br />
Orleans he was active in<br />
Rotary. He was also an<br />
active Rotarian in Rome,<br />
where he held various<br />
board positions for many<br />
years. Later, he had an<br />
opportunity to step into<br />
his first Chief Operation<br />
Officer role at Parkridge<br />
Medical Center in Chattanooga,<br />
TN.<br />
Carlton loves sports,<br />
and watches everything.<br />
“We have a ‘house divided’ with college<br />
football,” he jokes. “My wife, daughter and<br />
I are Georgia fans. Logan is a Georgia Tech<br />
fan, and Dawson roots for Alabama.” In the<br />
nineties, he managed health clubs in Atlanta,<br />
and during the 1996 Summer Olympics<br />
in Atlanta was involved in playing host to<br />
the Japanese judo team, French track team,<br />
and Dutch and American handball teams.<br />
In 1996, he ran his first marathon, and in<br />
2000 did his first Gulf Coast Triathlon in<br />
<strong>Panama</strong> <strong>City</strong>, followed by two more Ironman<br />
Florida races in 2004 and 2010. He<br />
also completed Ironman Louisville twice<br />
and Ironman Lake Placid once. “I like the<br />
cross training between swimming, running<br />
and cycling,” he says. “I grew up a swimmer,<br />
but stopped at 14 to play tennis full<br />
time.” He went on to play tennis in college,<br />
taught tennis and became a certified teaching<br />
pro. “If this healthcare thing doesn’t<br />
work out, I’ll go back to hitting balls on the<br />
tennis court!” he laughs.<br />
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