Fralin’s 60-year-plus career
certainly makes him the poster child for that view. After training as a lawyer, the Roanoke native joined the family businesses, and under his guidance both expanded exponentially: MFA Inc., which offers nursing and rehabilitation services, now has about 40 locations, and Retirement Unlimited Inc. operates 10 senior living communities. Fralin’s son William has taken over as president and CEO of both companies. The senior Fralin is well known
across the commonwealth for his civic and charitable endeavors. He serves on both the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and the Virginia Business Higher Education Council, and he has served on the boards of visitors at his alma mater, the University of Virginia, as well as for Virginia Tech. He and his wife, Cynthia, have been outstandingly generous to both schools. In 2012, they donated their collection of American art to
U.Va., which subsequently renamed its art museum in their honor. Six years later, it was Virginia Tech’s turn, when the Fralins, along with the Horace G. Fralin Charitable Trust, donated $50 million to the university for a biomedical research institute. Most recently, the Fralins gave
U.Va. $5 million to endow the head football coach’s position. Looking back at his illustrious
career, Fralin says, “The best part of any job is the relationships with the employees and the friendships you develop.”
“Get as much education as you possibly can, [but] a lot of good fortune comes to those who work the hardest.”
“Know
everything you could possibly
know about
property and then work like hell.”
BARBARA FRIED | 85 President, The Fried Cos. Inc., Crozet
“I used to really enjoy rezoning,” says Barbara Fried. That’s not a claim that many folks could probably make, but after 45 years in the real estate development and management business, Fried still finds “the prospect of something new always exciting.” Fried’s company, based out of the family
farm in Crozet with offices in Greene County, focuses on building residential and office complexes, shopping centers and industrial parks, many in the Charlottesville market. It handles about $100 million in new construc- tion projects every year and also manages properties, although it sold off many of its holdings before the 2008-09 real estate crash, Fried says. An exception to that selloff was Olde
Towne Pet Resort, a luxe boarding operation for dogs and cats with three locations in the
www.VirginiaBusiness.com
D.C. metro area. An ardent animal lover, Fried also sponsors a therapeutic riding program on her farm. For most of her long career, Fried ran the pet spa and other enterprises in tandem with her late husband, Mark. “He was the gas, and I was the brakes,”
she says, but since his death in 2010, she had to keep her feet on both pedals. Helping her steer the company into the future are her daughter, Leah, and nephew David Lesser. But Fried remains central to everything the company does. Chief Financial Officer Steve Rotter says he copies her on every email. Although he says he spares her the gory
details occasionally when the company faces “a particular hurdle” or a new project, he consults Fried, and “they bounce ideas back and forth. Forty years of experience can’t be learned in a book necessarily,” Rotter says.
VIRGINIA BUSINESS | 21
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