2025 Virginia C-Suite Awards: Small Public Companies

PAUL W. NESTER

PRESIDENT AND CEO, RGC RESOURCES AND ROANOKE GAS, ROANOKE

Founded in 1883, Roanoke Gas supplies natural gas to more than 60,000 customers in the Roanoke Valley, and RGC Midstream, one of parent company RGC Resources’ subsidiaries, owns a 1% interest in the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Nester was tapped in 2020 as president and CEO of RGC Resources, after serving as president of Roanoke Gas since 2019 and chief financial officer since 2012. After years of delay amid court actions, the 303-mile pipeline is now active in western Virginia, and Roanoke Gas now can supply natural gas to Franklin County’s Summit View site, with a new gate station built last year.

Outside of work, Nester is board chair for Total Action for Progress, a nonprofit assisting families in need across the Roanoke Valley and Allegheny Highlands. (Roanoke Gas has helped provide HVAC equipment for local residents to make their homes safer and more comfortable through TAP’s Healthy Homes Roanoke initiative.) Nester also is a past chair of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and served on the Roanoke Regional Partnership’s executive committee. “We feel a strong responsibility to serve and support the Roanoke Valley,” Nester says, because of his company’s “deep roots” in the region.

What I focus on: Our top priority and core value is safety, both for our employees and the public. Just behind safety, our second core value is customer services. Beyond that, we emphasize teamwork by supporting one another and stepping in where help is needed.