DAVID FRY:






 
 
 
 
 
CEO, Fry Inc., Ann Arbor. Fry took a small interactive marketing division of his father's Pennsylvania-based printing company to Ann Arbor, following his wife's medical career at the University of Michigan. He wound up creating a company that helped define e-commerce. Beginning in 1994, Fry Inc. would create groundbreaking Web sites for brand names both everyday and upscale, from Godiva Chocolatier to Eddie Bauer to Ragu pasta sauce - the latter such an early site that it owns the Web rights to the site www.eat.com! Fry Inc. rose to $4 million in revenue and won prestigious Clio awards within a few years - then weathered the Internet bubble's burst in 2000-02. Fry downsized but survived, and in 2004 online operations built and managed by Fry generated more than $1 billion for its roster of clients.


WHERE BORN: Mechanicsburg, Pa.

MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSONS: “My father, Henry. He took over his father's very small business when he was just out of college, and he built a very successful business, quite a bit more successful than mine, and everything I learned about business I learned from him. He has a great deal of integrity.”

LAST BOOK READ: “'The Greedy Bastard Tour Diary' by Eric Idle.”

WORDS THAT DESCRIBE ME: “Friendly. Unassuming. Unorthodox. Passionate.”

WHERE MY FIELD/INDUSTRY IS HEADED: “E-commerce is transforming the way people shop and consume services. There are good and bad sides to that. The good side is that everyone has greater reach, and it gives people more information about what they're about to purchase. It brings efficiency to the marketplace and controls costs. The downside is that it tends to make everyone a 24-7 consumer, and homogenizes everything. It really devalues the 'rare find.'”

FAVORITE TECHNOLOGICAL GADGET: “A tie between my Blackberry and my Razr telephone.”

FAVORITE PLACE: “Kanapali Beach, Maui. It's just breathtakingly beautiful and perfect and the one place I've been where I've really resented having to go home.”

FAVORITE HOBBY: “Blackjack.”

FAVORITE FOOD: “Kentucky Fried Chicken.”

MY HIDDEN TALENT: “This is kind of old, but I used to be able to solve a Rubik's Cube in 35 seconds.”

HOW I WANT TO BE REMEMBERED: “I guess for having improved my employees' lives by giving them a good livelihood and improving my clients' businesses. It's really pretty simple. But it's a lot of fun to see my employees working, and getting married and buying houses and having kids and seeing the kids grow up.”

Grant Thornton Website At the annual awards reception in April 2014, one Leader & Innovator from the previous 12 months will be selected as the Grant Thornton Leader & Innovator of the Year.