Don Flow points to a photograph of the Winston-Salem night skyline that hangs on a wall at the far end of his conference table. “That’s one of my favorite pictures in the world,” he says.

The 52-year-old chairman and CEO of Flow Companies Inc. pauses on a humid morning in his nonstop schedule. He wants to talk about the future of Winston-Salem, and he wants everyone to participate.

In fact, Flow wants 50 community leaders to write what they envision for the city in 2025: what changes they’d like to see and what would have to change for them to occur. He wants to publish their essays, and then he wants to post them online at WS2025.com. He wants the whole community to participate in the dialog.

Then, Flow would like to compile the yearlong conversation into a book and send it to academics for study. “It becomes a conversation for the city,” Flow says. “It needs to be the community’s. I want everyone to be able to participate.

“I’m a strong believer that you can’t become what you can’t imagine,” Flow continues. “That imagination grows up in community with people collaborating and thinking.” But, he adds that imagination must be grounded in resources with some level of confidence. “Imagination is not wishful dreams,” Flow says. “You could look and say for a period of time, ‘we lost our imagination for the city because we lost our confidence.’ What you see happening is that recovery of confidence, and you can feel that inside the city right now.”

Mover and Shaker
Flow’s business acumen is inescapable. Glancing at nearby vehicles at a stop light, it would be easy to think “Flow” is synonymous with car. But Flow has another deep-seated passion that drives him to help his city and its people: He absolutely loves Winston-Salem.

And the creativity, thoughtfulness, inclusiveness, optimism, and enthusiasm that accompany Flow’s unique idea for a community conversation are typical of what it is that city officials appreciate in this area leader.

“Don is so humble,” says Mayor Allen Joines. “That’s why people just don’t know how much he’s done. He is so well-read and ahead of the curve. He brings these ideas to Winston-Salem, helping us to be competitive and successful in the global economy.”

In 2005, the United Way of Forsyth County named Flow its recipient of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society Award which, according to President and CEO Ron Drago, is the highest award recognizing lifelong community service and philanthropy. Flow is one of the youngest to receive the honor.

“We are blessed,” Drago says. “His values are such that he wants to be and clearly is a successful businessman, but he sees the other side of that as being an obligation as well as an opportunity to give back and really make a difference in the community. Don has a very unique ability to put a laser focus on a problem and to bring together individuals and groups with all kinds of interests - sometimes competing interests - to attack and solve the problem.”

Joines says that Flow was instrumental in helping obtain key projects, like the baseball stadium, the Davis Cup quarter-final match, and Dell. In fact, when the Dell project was being discussed, it stalled at the state level, Joines says, so Flow spent a weekend studying the company’s annual reports to figure out a way to structure a package that would meet the needs of both the state and Dell. “Don’s positive attitude and brilliance allowed us to find alternatives and solutions to make the deal work,” Joines says.

Another problem he is committed to is creating new opportunities to support those who have suffered job losses due to layoffs. “These are citizens who invested their lives in a sense of place,” Flow notes. “We need to do everything we can to find jobs that match their skill sets. I think we have a moral obligation to people who have rooted themselves here, contributed to the community, and raised their families here, to say it is our responsibility - the whole community’s - to do everything possible to attract and retain jobs and the opportunity for jobs.”

Family ties
Born in Elkin, where his father was a partner in a Ford dealership, Flow has lived in Winston-Salem since his parents, Vic and Roddy Flow, decided to move to the city when Don was 2 years old. It was not possible at that time to buy a new car dealership, so Vic opened a used one on Broad Street.

In 1961, he opened a VW dealership, and over the years added Audi, Acura, Subaru, Honda, and BMW dealerships, which Don eventually bought to become part of Flow Companies Inc. Now Vic is president of Flow Lexus and his daughter, Marie Arcuri, is vice president of this separate company. Vic’s other son, Ralph, is a Raleigh engineer. In addition to the original dealerships, the company owns 28 other franchises in Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Fayetteville, and Charlottesville, Virginia. “I’m very proud of him,” Vic says.

While growing up, Don worked every job in the dealership, and when he graduated from the University of Virginia, his father sat him down to talk.

“He invited me to be a partner with him, which basically meant he guaranteed my loans, and I worked really hard to pay them off,” Flow says with a grin. “It was a great gift to me and an extraordinary opportunity to have my father as a partner.”

After working in the business for several years, Flow obtained a master’s degree in business administration from Wake Forest University, where he graduated first in his class with highest honors and received the Judson DeRamus Award for outstanding leadership. He and his wife, Robbin, have three children: Heather, 24, Eric, 21, and Kristin, 18.

Vic believes that one of the most important lessons he taught his son was “how to run an ethical business.” But the elder Flow also set another example: He is a Life Trustee of Wake Forest University, a leader in his church, and has served on more than two dozen boards. His children learned the importance of giving back to their community, and Vic also showed Don the magnitude of supporting the next generation.

“He understood me well,” Don Flow continues. “When I talked about trying to build and create a company and be a part of something, he was very affirming of that. He is a great mentor and great for his word. Without the support and encouragement of my father, this growth would not have been possible.”

A flourishing future
Flow believes there are five kinds of “capital” in which a community must invest. Social capital is “the good.” Intellectual capital is truth; aesthetic capital is beauty; political is justice; and economic is plenty, he explains.

“When those conditions are being realized, then the polis - the city - is flourishing,” he says, referencing Greek terminology.

“Social capital has an enormous amount to do with relationships and trust, breaking down barriers,” Flow continues. In 2005 he received The Winston-Salem Foundation’s Outstanding Citizen of Winston-Salem award for his work as a volunteer in recruiting Dell and how he went about doing it, says Scott Wierman, president of The Winston-Salem Foundation.

“Don’s leadership style was recognized for being much more inclusive,” Wierman says. “When people are willing to connect their own networks to other networks it can bring about something for the greater good of the community. He thrives off that sense of community service; his whole family does.”

Flow believes that many community leaders here are now making those types of connections among the universities, medical fields, community foundations, political spectrum, and all spheres of life.

“They’re willing to look at a bigger perspective as opposed to maximizing their own personal return,” Flow says. “If you’re not defined strictly by economic terms, it gives you freedom to look beyond that. If you see yourself as a linked part of a community, then that opens the door to other opportunities.

“Whatever gifts you have, use those,” he says.

Making a mark
Flow currently serves on the board of directors of both Wake Forest University Health Sciences and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, as well as the Winston-Salem Alliance Inc., and the Millenium Fund of Winston-Salem.

He is on the board of trustees of Wake Forest University and the North Carolina School of the Arts, and also continues to be involved at his other alma mater, the University of Virginia.

Still, despite the demand for Flow’s time, the sincerity of his work does not wane. In a corner facing the door to his office stands an 8-foot tall wooden tennis racket covered in pictures of dogs belonging to volunteers who worked this spring’s Davis Cup events.

Louise Pollard gave Flow the replica of the racket she made because someone outbid him during the auction. Pollard’s husband, Harold, and daughter, Tucker, both worked on the Davis Cup quarter-finals, continuing a longstanding family tradition that began with the Flow Motors Invitational tennis tournament in the late 1980s and ‘90s. “He is a huge advocate for Winston-Salem,” Pollard says, honoring Flow. “He is a visionary. He’s very energetic. He’s always upbeat. He’s almost like a little boy in his enthusiasm. He is one of my heroes; he really is.”