Mr. Fries leads the development and execution of financial strategies at Children’s Health, the leading pediatric health care system in North Texas, which cares for more than 370,000 patients annually. Since joining in 2020, he has driven an average annual increase in operating income of $183 million, a 190% increase compared with the five-year period prior to his arrival. He’s also grown revenue from $4.1 billion in 2021 to $6.4 billion in 2025, earning the system an “AA, stable” rating from Standard & Poor’s alongside “Aa3, stable” from Moody’s and “AA, negative” from Fitch. In 2025, he led a historic $800 million financing to support construction of the new $5 billion Dallas pediatric campus, the largest debt issuance in the organization’s history. Its $600 million fixed-rate issuance drew 49 unique investors, was nearly four times oversubscribed and generated more than $2.3 billion in orders, while the variable-rate issuance priced at 2.70% from 2.85%. He also established a $300 million commercial paper program to supplement the system’s existing $300 million line of credit. Mr. Fries led the transition from a static annual plan to a dynamic, rolling forecast model updated quarterly, and in 2023 helped make Children’s Health one of the earliest pediatric systems in the nation to bring generative AI into clinical care, reducing technology spending by more than 2% relative to revenue. The new Dallas campus, built in partnership with Dallas-based UT Southwestern Medical Center, spans more than 33 acres and nearly 5 million square feet. Mr. Fries was named Dallas Business Journal “CFO of the Year” in 2022 and previously served as vice president of children’s services finance and CFO at San Francisco-based UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals.
