Director - Carolina's Active Retirement Association (CARA)

Dan Owens, a native of Warren, Arkansas holds a B.S. degree from the University of Mississippi and an MBA from the University of South Carolina graduate business program. He served an internship on Capitol Hill for former U.S. Senator David Pryor (D-AR) and later was one of 14 MBA students around the country to serve an internship with the Magazine Publishers of America of New York, NY.

Early in his career, he was the founder and first publisher of Arkansas Business newspaper, a statewide weekly that continues to be published today. After selling his interest, Owens moved to the Carolinas. In 1993 and launched Senior Living Associates, a publishing and consulting business.

In 1999 Owens launched the Carolinas Active Retirement Association (CARA), a Carolinas-wide trade organization that helps towns and cities, developers, realtors and other business people network with others who market to, build for or otherwise serve the active retirement industry in the Carolinas. Working with CARA, Owens has hosted six Carolinas-wide business conferences, bringing in speakers from as far away as Hartford, Connecticut and San Francisco.

In 2000, Owens sold five Senior Living Resource Magazines that he had launched in Charlotte and expanded to Raleigh/Durham, Greensboro/Winston-Salem, Columbia, SC and Greenville/Spartanburg, SC. He currently is the publisher of Retirement Lifestyles in the Carolinas, a magazine distributed throughout the Carolinas and around the country. Through Senior Living Associates, Inc., Owens has consulted with developers of retirement housing, as well as communities seeking retirees, such as Sumter, SC, Seneca, SC, Morganton, NC and Santee, SC.

Dan lives in Charlotte with his wife, Melissa and daughter Caroline. He is a past president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Senior Centers Inc. and the Lions Foundation of the Piedmont, an organization that supports disabled students at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the founder and organizing chairman of the Greater Charlotte Sports Hall of Fame, an enterprise that honors sports legends. All proceeds from this enterprise go to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Senior Centers.

KEY INTERESTS: Creative Economic Development for NC Travel and Tourism.