Task Force Biographies:
Industry/Business Members

James S. Carman is the manager of the California 5 a Day – Be Active Worksite Program, a statewide social marketing effort that works with a broad range of partners to encourage low-income workers to consume more fruits and vegetables and engage in regular physical activity during their workday and throughout their lives.  The Be Active! Worksite Program also partners with California employers to provide tools to assist them in their efforts to create healthy workplace environments.   Jim is currently the Chair of the Worksite Committee of the California Task Force on Youth and Workplace Wellness, Past President of the California Wellness Information Network, and on the advisory board for Worksite Wellness LA.  Prior to joining the Be Active! Worksite Program, Jim directed a medical center department focused on worksite health promotion, corporate health services, rehabilitation, and sports medicine in upstate New York.  As an avid triathlete and adventure racer, Jim enjoys maintaining a high level of fitness.  He is a four-time finisher at the Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.

Ben T. Midgley has been in the fitness industry for 16 years. His approach has always been ethics, values, and relationships first, then profits, and year after year it has proven to work dramatically well.  He is currently the Senior Director of Corporate Sales, for 24 Hour Fitness, the world's largest privately owned fitness company and an internationally published business author.

In his role as 24 Hour Fitness Senior Director of Corporate Sales Ben oversees the relationships of more than 3,000 corporate clients, including many of the country's best-known corporations and the business-to-business sales results of 47 corporate wellness managers. His book (co-authored with his father) Golden Circle Secrets - How to Achieve Consistent Sales Success through Customer Values and Expectations, has been repeadably ranked on Amazon as the  #1 Sales Management and #1 Customer Service book in the country www.goldencircle.biz .

He has taught to the fitness industry all over the world through industry conventions and consulting and is an industry leader and trendsetter. He is a regular contributing writer for national and international fitness industry publications and has been honored as the top sales person in the $15 billion fitness industry by IHRSA - the International Health Racquet & Sports Club Association.

Ben has also been recognized as an expert in the area of corporate wellness programming. Because of this1Distinction he is a member of the California Task Force on Youth and Workplace Wellness as well as Governor Schwarzenegger's Get Healthy California Work Group, both of which where developed to address the growing concern of rising health care costs in California.