Aries Capital's founder Neil Freeman, right,  earned his real estate license in South Florida when he was still in high school and has been moving properties ever since. Starting as Freeman Realty Advisers in 1991 (he transitioned to Aries by ?93), the firm focuses on adopting new kinds of financing: It was one of the first to get into the CMBS market (in the mid-90s, before it became a big oops); and, it also takes advantage of government New Market Capital funds to bring commercial development into low-income neighborhoods.

Neil is working on financing three LaQuinta Inns with help from a private investor, as well as using New Market funds to develop an office tower in Jackson,Mississippi and the historic Fairmount Hotel (previously the Roosevelt) in New Orleans. Both are in areas devastated by Katrina, so Neil was happy to have the chance to help. By the way, he's not an Aries himself; Neil chose an ?A? name so it would show up early in the directory, and also after his daughters, Ariel and Simone. Plus, Cancer Capital probably wasn't a good name for a company.