Alex Orfinger, who is departing as publisher of The Washington Business Journal, writes about the people at American City Business Journals who helped him in his career.
Orfinger writes, “Ray Shaw, the longtime CEO of American City Business Journals, was an extraordinary mentor to me. He trusted me, inexplicably at times, when I was a young publisher trying to figure out what I was doing. He had that special leadership superpower — he may have been sparse with praise, but when it came, it was powerful. And when I failed miserably, I knew it and he just didn’t dwell on it. A simple and enduring leadership lesson for me.
“Ray passed away suddenly in 2009, but his influence never left me.
“That influence continues through his son, Whit Shaw, who carried on the company’s commitment to local journalism and gave me — and so many of us — the opportunity to build something meaningful in our communities.
“And then there is Doug Fruehling.
“I hired Doug 30 years ago as a real estate reporter. Somewhere along the way, we became colleagues, friends and business partners in the broadest sense of the word — navigating changing times, changing technology and a changing business while chronicling the business community around us.”
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