Mike Carver: He has his priorities straight

Mike Carver’s been at it 43 years. And he couldn’t be happier.

“I am truly a blessed man to have been able to spend my career in medical sales,” says Carver, corporate accounts director for medical distribution, GOJO Industries. “It would be hard to perceive anyone loving their friends or having any better relationships in the industry than I do. Meaningful relationships remain the priority for success.”

Carver is one of three inductees this year into the Medical Distribution Hall of Fame.

Destiny
Carver believes he is one of the few who was destined to go into medical sales. “I knew when I went away to college, that I would end up in the medical supply industry,” he says. “All I wanted to do was to carry a bag, like my dad.”

His dad, Gene Carver, a World War II veteran, began his medical sales career in an entry-level position with Medical Arts Supply Company, a Huntington, W.V.-based distributor. Gene worked his way up and became a partner and general manager of the company (which was one of the first to be acquired by Max Goodloe, as Goodloe was building what was to become General Medical – now McKesson Medical-Surgical).

“He taught me the value of hard work and compassion, and appreciation for this industry,” says Carver, about his father.

Carver himself was born in Huntington in 1951. “I was raised on the Southside, in a two-story brick house with one bathroom (no shower), two sisters, and a mother and father who loved us all,” he says. “We attended public schools, church, and ate almost all of our meals at home. I lived in this home from the age of four until I graduated from college.”

His mother, Lucy, was raised in the country in Glenville, W.V., with 10 siblings. She worked retail in Huntington, was active in PTA, but was primarily a mother and housewife.

Carver graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1973 with a degree in business administration. When home for the holidays and during summers, he worked at Medical Arts/General Medical. “I loved being around all of the sales guys,” he says. “They always had a story to tell, they were funny, they had nice cars, they dressed well, they were good-looking type guys, and they all seemed to do well financially and to be happy.”

Ground-floor opportunities
His first job in medical sales was with Baxter Travenol Laboratories, selling urologicals, gloves, solutions, and a myriad of trays and kits. “It was a very diverse product line, and we only sold through medical distribution, so this was a perfect training venue for a career in the medical supply industry. I was very confident that I would be successful: College had been very easy for me, and God had blessed me with a personality well-suited for sales and social situations.”

He left Baxter in 1978 to join Skyland Hospital Supply (now Concordance Healthcare Solutions), opening up a territory in and around Huntington. Skyland was acquired about nine years later by Edward (Bud) Albers, whose family had owned and operated Albers Drug Company in Knoxville, Tenn., since 1864. “Bud was an icon in Knoxville, and he decided he wanted to open a medical supply business there,” says Carver. And he wanted Carver to run it.

It was a big decision for a 37-year-old, with a family to think about. “[Skyland] had no business, no inventory,” he says. “I went to church, prayed a lot. But Ginny [his wife] said, ‘I’m with you, and the kids are with you.’ So I knew I was good.”

He also knew it would be a test of his own skills. “I really wanted to see how good I was,” he recalls. The family moved to Knoxville in 1988.

“I think the hardest job in healthcare is for a distributor rep to create a territory from scratch,” he says. But he did some digging and identified a key decision-maker at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. As fate would have it, a significant meeting was set up…at the same time Carver’s son, Clay, was to play in a state championship baseball game. “I missed his game – they won, and Clay hit a home run – but I got the University of Tennessee. My point is, when you create a territory, there are a lot of sacrifices you have to make.”

Working for Bud Albers was a good experience. “Mr. Albers taught me to love and respect my customers, and to always be empathetic with each situation,” he says. Eighteen months after going to Knoxville, his branch was Skyland’s No. 1 in sales.

Four years later, he and a colleague, Derick Nance, started their own distribution company in Knoxville called Southland Medical Supply. Within four years, the company had opened up 16 distribution centers, focusing on home care. One of its accounts was Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. (now HCA).

“We were doing amazing things back then,” he recalls. “We were far ahead of others in technology.” Southland reps scanned customers’ inventory using bar code technology, created orders onsite, and used the technology to generate invoices after products were shipped. They even managed shipping directly to patients’ homes. “Even today, some people aren’t doing that,” he says.

In 1998, with home care reimbursement in a state of flux, Nance and Carver decided to sell their company. Shortly thereafter, he joined PaperPak Products, which had recently acquired the Attends line of adult incontinence products. His job: Set up a medical distribution network. “I’ve spent about half my 43 years in the industry on the distribution side, and half on the manufacturing side,” he says. “That has given me greater insight into actually understanding the other side.”

Move to GOJO
Then, in 2003, Greg Conner, who had been vice president of sales for PaperPak, asked Carver to join him at GOJO Industries, a hand-care company which, in 1988, had developed PURELL® Instant Hand Sanitizer. “At the time, it was primarily a commercial-based distribution company with very few or any meaningful relationships with medical distributors,” recalls Carver. It was another “ground up” challenge – or opportunity – for him. And the timing was right.

“In 2003, the CDC had just come out with their hand hygiene guidelines for healthcare,” he recalls. And those guidelines were sorely needed, as thousands of people were dying annually from infections they contracted while in the hospital. “GOJO had a lot of smart people,” he says. With PURELL, the company was well-positioned to help providers meet CDC’s guidelines.

“For our team to be finalist and winners over and over again as ‘Manufacturing vendor of the Year’ with organizations such as Owens and Minor, Cardinal Healthcare, NDC, IMCO and so many individual distributors, says so much about our team and the industry’s appreciation for our team.”

Passion
“My first memory of Mike was when he ran Southland Medical,” recalls Conner. “I accompanied GOJO’s sales manager, who was responsible for Southland. During the meeting, Mike was all business – no nonsense and always negotiating. He was rather imposing – not only his 6-foot-4-inch frame, but he knew his business.

“When the meeting broke, he wanted to sit down and have a Coke. He was a completely different person – relaxed, and he couldn’t have been nicer. I recall he even offered to give me a pair of Tennessee football tickets.”

The reason Conner asked Carver to join the former at GOJO was, in short, Carver’s passion. “Mike has a way that allows his passion to easily rub off on other people,” says Conner. “That along with the fact that Mike is all about results. With him, it’s not ‘How?’ it’s ‘How many?’ But make no mistake: He takes no shortcuts and he does it right.”

When asked about Carver’s greatest gifts to the industry, Conner names three. “First, Mike is all about relationships,” he says. “I’m not talking about the superficial kind. He genuinely cares about the people he works with – co-workers, customers or the waiter at the restaurant. Second, he wants to be No. 1 in everything he does. He wants the most exciting and successful trade show booth at every show he attends; he wants to be No. 1 in sales contests, and he wants and expects his co-workers to want it as badly as he does.

“Third, Mike is about giving back,” says Conner. “Most people in the industry know about the annual ‘Friends of the Healthcare Industry’ event Mike puts on with Tim Cokkinias of B. Braun. … Throughout the year, Mike and his wife, Ginny, spent countless hours behind the scenes working with this organization. So, it’s not just a one-time-a-year thing for Mike. I’ve also seen him jump in his car or on a plane on the weekend because a distributor customer is admitted to the hospital or has had a death in the family. Mike genuinely cares about people.”

Lots of support
Carver has been married to “the very beautiful Virginia ‘Ginny’ Carver” for over 43 years, he says. “Ginny was a registered nurse by trade and one of the original nurse/paralegals in West Virginia and Tennessee. Without Ginny’s love and support, I would not be in the Hall of Fame. With four children, me being on the road days, weekends, weeks at a time, she has always believed in me and has always prioritized my career even though she was herself so talented. Our family has had to make some challenging decisions, especially in relation to moving and job opportunities, and she has always been 100 percent supportive.”

The couple have four children: Ryan, a University of South Florida grad, now in the restaurant business in Raleigh, N.C.; Clay, a University of Tennessee grad, now in Knoxville, Tenn, working for Concordance Healthcare Solutions; Caroline, who received an MBA from Memphis and is in the fuel industry; and Kirk, a second-year resident in internal medicine with Carolinas HealthCare System in Morganton, N.C.

The Carver family recently completed its 19th Annual “Friends of the Healthcare Industry” weekend, supporting the FISH Hospitality Pantries, which provides food packages to thousands of residents in the Knoxville area. More than 40 medical distributors participated in the weekend, which generated a record $34,000 to feed the hungry.

“Without question, my favorite part of working within this industry is all of the relationships that I and my family have made over the years,” he says. “We love so many in this industry, from employees of both manufacturers and distributors and their families. The most honest and compassionate and kindest and hardest-working people in the world work in the healthcare industry.

“As far as my career goes, after evenly splitting my 43 years between medical distribution and medical manufacturing on four different occasions, I have been given ground-floor opportunities to create and develop successful territories and companies and programs that have affected so many in such a positive way.”

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Anything for his kids

“Mike is a wonderful father of Ryan, Clay, Caroline and Kirk,” says Greg Conner, vice president of healthcare sales for GOJO Industries, speaking of Mike Carver. “He’ll go to the ends of the earth to help his children…literally.”

Conner explains that Carver’s daughter, Caroline, was a star soccer player growing up, who went to college on an athletic scholarship.

“When she was around 12, I visited Mike at his house,” says Conner. “As I was getting out of the car, I saw a tall, thin African gentleman sprint across Mike’s lawn in shorts and running shoes. I asked Mike about it. He casually said, ‘Oh, that’s Tata.’ I said ‘Oh, OK.’

“We started to discuss whatever we were talking about, but I stopped and asked, ‘So, who’s Tata?’ Mike replied that he was the Nigerian Women’s National Soccer coach.

“Again, I started to go back to our original conversation, but again I had to ask, ‘So what’s Tata the Nigerian Women’s National Soccer coach doing here?’ Mike told me he was staying with their family…for a few months! It seems Tata was in town, and Mike met him at a soccer event. One thing led to another, and Mike found that Tata didn’t have any place to stay in Knoxville so he brought him home for a few months.

“Caroline’s own personal world class soccer coach.”