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Agriculture 2024: DAVID GUM
National Fruit Product Co., which sells apple products east of the Mississippi mostly under the White House Foods label, has been family owned since 1908. Gum started working at the company in 1981 at age 20 in an entry-level accounting position. He purchased it from its founding family in 2006. The Gum family also owns [&hellip[...]
Federal Contractors | Technology 2024: TOM ARSENEAULT
As president and CEO of BAE Systems Inc., the U.S. arm of British defense giant BAE Systems PLC, Arseneault has overseen developments such as the $5.55 billion acquisition in February of Colorado-based Ball Aerospace. In 2023, BAE Systems Inc. reported $13.6 billion in revenue; it employs 41,000 workers worldwide, including 5,20[...]
Health Care 2024: DR. DAVID S. JEVSEVAR
In 2022, Jevsevar became CEO of OrthoVirginia, the largest independent orthopedic practice in the state with 150-plus orthopedic specialists across more than 35 locations in Lynchburg, Northern Virginia, Richmond, Southwest Virginia and Hampton Roads. An orthopedic surgeon with more than three decades of experience, Jevsevar spe[...]
Government | Politics 2024: MARK WARNER
Virginia’s Democratic senior senator, Warner is particularly known for chairing the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence — and, thanks to a viral pandemic-era video, for making a tuna melt that has been variously described as “cursed” and “an atrocity.” The co-founder of Nextel and Capital Cellular, wi[...]
Real Estate 2024: JULIAN G. FRANCIS
Francis joined Beacon Roofing Supply, a Fortune 500 distributor of roofing material, as president and CEO in 2019. Founded in 1928, Beacon is a distributor of building products, including roofing materials and complementary products, such as siding and waterproofing. It has approximately 8,000 employees and operates in all 50 st[...]
Manufacturing 2024: DAVID LEDESMA
Ledesma became the plant manager of DuPont’s Spruance site in 2021 after serving in the same role at its Buffalo, New York, facility. Built in 1929, DuPont’s Spruance site is the largest of the company’s manufacturing facilities worldwide; it has more than 2,000 employees and produces Tyvek, Nomex and Kevlar. I[...]
Hospitality | Tourism 2024: ERIC TERRY
With four decades of hospitality experience, Terry has advocated for the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association’s 1,500-plus industry members since joining as president in 2014. In February, Terry applauded the Virginia General Assembly for passing industry-supported legislation to legalize restaurants servi[...]
Federal Contractors | Technology 2024: ADAM RIDDLE
In April 2023, Riddle was named chairman and CEO of Rolls-Royce North America and president of its defense division. Riddle has more than a decade of experience under his belt with the British aerospace, defense and engineering company. Most recently, Riddle headed up Rolls-Royce’s global services division, which accounts [...]
Federal Contractors | Technology 2024: LAURA K. IPSEN
After 25 years in Silicon Valley working as an executive for Oracle, Microsoft and Cisco Systems, Ipsen was hired to lead higher education tech company Ellucian in 2017. With 3,800 employees worldwide — including 230 in Virginia — Ellucian boasts an annual revenue approaching $1 billion. In October 2023, Ellucian announced a[...]
Government | Politics 2024: C. TODD GILBERT
After a 2022-24 stint as speaker of the House during Republicans’ two-year control of that chamber, Gilbert returned to the position of minority leader after Democrats narrowly retook power this year following the 2023 elections. The Shenandoah Valley conservative is a key ally to Gov. Glenn Youngkin in the General Assembl[...]
Banking | Finance 2024: JEAN STACK
A look at Baird’s defense and government sector business for 2023 shows that the year proved challenging, with merger and acquisitions down by 24%. Even so, the team managed to close 12 M&A transactions valued at more than $7 billion in aggregate. In 2024, Baird advised Herndon’s LinQuest, an engineering, data [...]
Health Care 2024: EDWARD A. PESICKA
Fortune 500 health care logistics and supply company Owens & Minor is in the process of moving its headquarters to Henrico’s Innsbrook Corporate Center after selling its Mechanicsville building to the Virginia Department of Transportation for $33.5 million. Pesicka, who became the company’s chief executive in 2[...]
