Carlton L. Guthrie

Entrepreneur Carlton L. Guthrie was born on September 15, 1952, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Mary and Willie Guthrie. He received his B.A. degree in economics in 1974 from Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his M.B.A. degree in general management in 1978 from Harvard Business School, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Guthrie joined Philadelphia National Bank as a credit analyst in 1974 and Procter & Gamble as a sales associate in 1975. In 1978, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, and became an internal management consultant at Jewel Companies, a food, drug and general merchandise distributor, and, in 1980, a senior consultant at McKinsey & Company in their Consumer Group specializing in strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions. Guthrie became executive vice president and chief operating officer at the general management consulting firm James H. Lowry & Associates in 1982. In 1985, Guthrie and his older brother, Michael, purchased the Lansing, Michigan-based metal stamping companies Trumark, Inc., and Uplift, Inc. In 1998, the Guthries formed the Detroit-based chassis assembly company TruMack Assembly, of which Guthrie served as co-chair and president. In 2002, TruMack Assembly became Detroit Chassis LLC. The Guthries established Detroit Custom Chassis in 2005. Guthrie serves as co-chair of Detroit Chassis LLC and its parent company, SPECTRA LMP LLC, of which Detroit Chassis Avon, based in Avon, Ohio, also is a subsidiary. Guthrie is a co-owner and the CEO of HealthCure LLC, a provider of infectious disease mitigation, prevention, consulting, and remediation services and products for health and patient care facilities founded in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2007.

Guthrie founded the Single Parent Family Institute in Lansing, Michigan, and co-founded the Runners’ Club in Chicago, Illinois, both of which he has chaired. Guthrie became chair of Concerned Christian Men in 2006, HealthCure LLC in 2009, and Gary Alumni Pathway to Students (GAPS) in 2016. He has served twice as president of the National Association of Black Automotive Suppliers and on the boards of the Joyce Foundation, in Chicago; the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, in Boston, Massachusetts; Centers for New Horizons, in Chicago; the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, in Washington, D.C.; and Shorebank, in Chicago. In 2020, the Guthrie family established the Guthrie Family Scholarship fund, which is awarded to graduates of West Side Leadership Academy in Gary, Indiana, and South Haven High School, in South Haven, Michigan.

Guthrie, his brother Michael, and their businesses have been recognized as Supplier of the Year by the National Minority Business Development Council and by On Wheels, Inc.; Black Business of the Year by the National Business League; Michigan Manufacturer of the Year by Impressions 5 Museum of Lansing; and on the Quality Leadership 100 list by Quality Magazine. The Greater Lansing Business Monthly named the Guthries Entrepreneurs of the Year and Ernst & Young named them Entrepreneurs of the Year for Southeast Michigan. Guthrie received the Chivas Regal Extrapreneur of the Year Award for social entrepreneurship.

Guthrie and his wife, Dawn-Marie Guthrie, live in Chicago, Illinois. He has two children, Carille and Adam.

Carlton L. Guthrie was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on March 2, 2022.