Matthew Frey

“I think, because of my physical disabilities growing up, I learned to compensate through my personality and my interactions with people,” said Matthew Frey.

He was born with the fingers on his left hand fused together, and with just four fingers on his right hand. And at seven months of age, his left leg had to be amputated below the knee.

Now, after multiple surgeries, Frey, 38, has a prosthetic leg and four digits on each hand.

That didn’t stop him from becoming a competitive swimmer in high school or playing golf and tennis. And it certainly didn’t stop him from moving to St. Petersburg, Florida, 11 years ago to launch a financial advisory firm from scratch.

Moving to St. Petersburg, where his wife is from, to join Raymond James Financial’s independent advisor platform, Frey said he did everything he could think of to get in front of people.

“Anything and everything I could do to meet people,” he said.

Frey, who took on a partner, Colby Masterson, a few years after launching the firm, joined the Leadership St. Petersburg Program through the local Chamber of Commerce to start building out his network.

He has sat on a half-dozen boards of various community organizations and currently volunteers at a free clinic providing food, housing and health care to people in need.

“I found that St. Petersburg is a very welcoming community if you’re willing to get involved and give back and follow through on commitments,” Frey said. “The beauty of what we do for a living is that it allows us to give back to the community.”

—Jeff Benjamin