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| Feature |
The Noble and the Needy
Matthew Schuerman
09/01/2004
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John Frey
The Personal Touch
John Frey, 45, was born the son of a junior sales trainee at a packaging
manufacturer in St. Paul, Minn. Gradually, his father, Eugene, worked his way up
the ranks until he purchased the company with a partner in 1985. His family
later bought out the partner, and sold the whole enterprise, then employing
2,200 workers, for $415 million seven years ago. Charity had always been a part
of the family’s life, and once their wealth increased, so did their giving.
Frey’s parents started a family foundation in 1988, and they remain actively
involved in its administration. The younger generation—John and his brother and
sister—sit on its board of directors, but also give out of their own
pockets.
“I Like meeting and getting to know the people behind an
organization, which you can only really do when supporting
smaller causes.”
– John Frey |
“I’m kind of an underdog,” Frey says. “I think I’m living a charmed
life, but it didn’t start out that way.” Early in his career he was a salesman
for a fruit and vegetable broker, but he eventually made his way over to his
father’s business. Now Frey is the president and CEO of the family office,
Wabash Capital Management, as well as a director of the family’s $6 million
foundation, and president of its trust company.
Frey is a member of the One
Percent Club, a Minneapolis-based group of 550 philanthropists who pledge to
give away 1 percent of their net worth or 5 percent of their income, whichever
is greater, each year.
Among the many human service charities in the Twin
Cities that he supports as a donor and trustee are Open Arms of Minnesota, which
delivers meals to homebound patients with AIDS, and the Jeremiah Program, which
gives apartments to single moms. Both the family foundation and Frey’s personal
giving favor community groups that help people in need attain self-sufficiency.
His parents direct their foundation monies to places where they have a personal
connection, such as the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and, since
Eugene Frey was an Eagle Scout growing up, the local Boy Scouts council.
However, John’s preferred tactic is to seek out organizations that sound worthy,
research their financial data and introduce himself to the staff.
His
involvement in Open Arms is typical of his approach. After a friend mentioned
the organization in 1996, Frey called its head, Kevin Winge, for an appointment.
Winge made quite an impression: Two years later, Frey joined the board, and he
is now its chairman.
“I’m glad there are people out there making grants to
large organizations,” Frey says. “Some people like to look at the annual report
and see their names there. I like meeting and getting to know the people behind
an organization, which you can only really do when supporting smaller
causes.”
“There are 40 or 50 programs in Chicago that are doing
wonderful things with kids... Maybe people could try giving to just one or
two to see if it fits.”
– Cyndie McLachlan |
Cyndie McLachlan
In Her Own Image
Cyndie McLachlan grew up in New Jersey, where her father owned a small
abrasives company. She graduated from a junior college in upstate New York and
began casting about for Mr. Right. “I was as traditional as possible,” she
recalls, “with my curly blond bubble-cut hair, circle pin, scarab bracelet and
loafers.”
She married Donald McLachlan, a corporate lawyer who cofounded
Wisconsin Central Railroad. The business prospered and grew, but Donald
McLachlan was secretive about his finances. The couple lived in a pleasant but
not ostentatious part of Chicago’s North Side. It was not until he died in 1992,
of pancreatic cancer, that Cyndie McLachlan learned of the fortune her husband
amassed.
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