“If I was given a gift, it was being able to get along with people — any and everybody. I think, in general, most people like having a relationship with people who get along with other people. That’s just kind of how I’ve built my career and how I’ve lived my life. And I’m grateful for those relationships.”
“He’s one of the warmest, most-liked people in our business, who used the power of his personality and his intellectual curiosity to play a really important role with the Hornets but also within the community. One of the things that sets him apart from most people in that job is that he became such a community leader, which in Charlotte was really a success component. He had to leverage that, in a really smart way, to accomplish the things they’ve done there and get through some of the crises he’s had to deal with.”
— Rick Welts, former Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns team president
“We had a financial relationship with the team, but I never felt like Fred was just treating me like somebody he had to pay attention to because I was with the bank. When he received me, it was with genuineness, with friendship, and a sense of warmth. And he never missed those opportunities. That’s unique for people who are under a lot of pressure to get a result — to win, to get a profit. The genuineness with which he receives people and tries to do right by them is unique.”
— Charles Bowman, retired president for North Carolina, Bank of America
“It’s not a big world. So all of a sudden, you start to meet a lot of people. And he’s that person who is personable enough that people will say, ‘Give me a call if you need anything; let me know when you’re in town.’ That’s what he does. People are people. I don’t care whether they’re businessmen or high society or the lowest of the low or great athletes. Everybody just wants to be a person in the end. And the more you lean on that and treat them like people, the more you are able to make a difference. And maybe that’s his strongest suit — dealing with people.”
— Howard “H” White, vice president, Jordan Brand
“It didn’t matter if you were a politician, a business person, a philanthropist, or somehow in the performance side of the business — he knows everyone. And it goes way beyond Charlotte. I could walk into his office and say ‘We’re working with this company out in L.A.,’ and he’d say, ‘I know those guys.’ OK. And then we’d figure out a strategy to get in front of them and the next thing you know we’d run it into an opportunity.”
— Pete Guelli, former Charlotte Hornets COO, now Buffalo Bills COO
“If he can figure out a way to help you, especially if it’s with an introduction to somebody else, I think he really enjoys being able to do that; to use the circle of influence that he has to help people toward their goals. If you had a relationship broker, that’s a title that I would say Fred would easily have, because he seems to have that knack. And that’s with anyone at any level. He has formed meaningful relationships with people from all walks of life and all different measures of success. And he treats them all with the same level of importance and significance.”
— Seth Bennett, Charlotte Hornets chief marketing officer
“Those were not relationships that Fred just started. ... He had great relationships within that community, within Charlotte and the greater North Carolina community. And he didn’t just have to say ‘I gotta get to know this person.’”
— Kathy Behrens, president of social responsibility and player programs, NBA
