Francie Ryder has officially left the building, leaving Carol Seal to fly solo as the new CEO and executive vice president for the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors. Ryder retired as executive officer on December 31 after 27 years of dedicated service to the Association.
Ryder says she’s thrilled that the Board of Directors for GCAR chose Seal to be the Association’s new CEO. “Carol comes to us with a wealth of knowledge regarding the real estate industry and the operations of the Realtor organization at all levels. With her 11 years of experience, she will be a great asset in keeping GCAR on track and moving forward to meet the needs of our members and the communities they serve.”
Seal says she’s looking forward to working with the real estate community in Chattanooga.
“The Chattanooga Association is not broken, so I’m not coming in to fix anything in particular but rather to improve upon the excellent groundwork already laid thanks to Francie, GCAR leadership and GCAR staff. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Francie, and she deserves a wonderful retirement,” Seal says.
Seal does have a few items on her to-do list. Top priority is getting to know the more than 1,300 GCAR members. “I want to meet as many of our members as I can and learn their thoughts on where GCAR is headed and the services we provide. Thus far, I’ve participated in one office meeting, and hope to have more such opportunities in the near future. I intend to do a lot of listening and learning about what our members expect from us so we can work together to best serve the needs of the Greater Chattanooga real estate community.”
Also on Seal’s to-do list are some broader and ongoing initiatives, including working with GCAR’s Young Professional’s Network chapter to engage the younger real estate professionals and bridge the gaps among the various generations represented in the membership. And Seal would like to involve more commercial practitioners in the association as part of GCAR’s initiative to be the go-to source for all things real estate in Chattanooga, both residential and commercial.
GCAR has many initiatives already in the works – data sharing with other associations, communicating and increasing the member value proposition, and revamping www.GCAR.net, which is the association’s public facing side to its residential and commercial Multiple Listing Services.
A Georgia native, Seal earned a degree in English literature at Rhodes College in Memphis and then went to work for Towery Publishing, which published materials for Chambers of Commerce across the U.S. She was working as the company’s marketing director when it shut down in 2002.
Seal comes to GCAR from the Memphis Area Association of Realtors, where she served as the industry practices and procedures director. The position involved enforcing the Realtor Code of Ethics and overseeing the related dispute resolution process. “I was the rules girl, helping members stay out of trouble by answering questions about local rules, as well as state and national rules and policies,” she says.
In addition to attending state and national meetings to stay current with trends and initiatives in real estate, Seal holds the Realtor Certified Executive certification from the National Association of Realtors.
Although Seal is new to GCAR, she has lived in the Chattanooga area for more than a year. She and her husband, Scott, a retired Navy submarine commander, married last August and relocated to Signal Mountain, where Scott grew up. Seal continued to work for MAAR after the move, telecommuting from their home and returning to Memphis once a month for in-person meetings.
“When you marry a nuclear engineer, you can’t be choosy about where you live,” Seal says. “We’re blessed Scott was able to return to his hometown and work for TVA after his Navy career.”
Seal is happy to have made the Scenic City area home. “We enjoy the four seasons and take advantage of everything Chattanooga has to offer, from outdoor concerts and area attractions to the many farmers’ markets and local restaurants. I’m a foodie at heart, and we love the growing food truck scene and the ‘eat local’ movement,” she says.
In her spare time, Seal likes to cook, read and coax her two teenage stepdaughters, who live in Memphis, to visit as often as possible. She also is a mom to two four-legged kids of the canine variety – a golden retriever named Pal and a Maltese-Shitzu named King Louis.