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Virginia Business// August 29, 2020//
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, THE IDI GROUP COS., MCLEAN
The Washington Post once dubbed Cecchi “the condo king.” He is perhaps most famous for his role in the creation of the iconic Watergate complex, but he also has left his mark on Northern Virginia, where his family-owned company is headquartered in an office tower atop the Rosslyn Metro. Among Cecchi’s best-known Virginia projects are the Carlyle Towers in Alexandria and Leisure World in Lansdowne.
Cecchi has been called a marketing genius who successfully developed properties others overlooked. He’s equally known for his humane treatment of tenants in properties targeted for conversion to condos. When IDI redeveloped the 1,684-unit Parkfairfax complex in Alexandria, for example, not one tenant was forced out.
Cecchi, who hails from Milan, Italy, is a believer in family, and three out of four of his children now work at IDI.
He and his wife, Mercedes, have supported numerous charities, including The Catholic University of America, the National Children’s Museum, Children’s National Hospital and George Mason University. In 2018, Cecchi hosted President Trump at his home for a fundraising event.
“I have earned more than I need to live happily,” he once told Catholic Charities. “I have to share it.”
CHAIR, STATE COUNCIL OF HIGHER EDUCATION FOR VIRGINIA, CHARLOTTESVILLE
In July, Gov. Ralph Northam announced that Connelly would chair the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV). A 30-year financial services industry veteran, she was integral in the 1994 foundation of Capital One Financial Corp., where she served as executive vice president of operations. She previously worked with Wachovia Securities (now Wells Fargo), Barclaycard and Convergys Corp., where she served as chief operating officer. From 2012 to 2013, she served as interim president at Longwood University. She also sits on the board of Norfolk-based PRA Group Inc.
In Central Virginia, she has served on several boards involving gender equality, diversity and workforce development. She was appointed by Govs. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine to the Council on Virginia’s Future and was the past chair of the Virginia Workforce Council. Today, she serves as chair of the board of directors of The Women’s Initiative, which provides affordable mental health services. During her time with Wachovia, she was executive sponsor for GALEA, the corporation’s LGBT employee network group.
In 2009, she was recognized by Equality Virginia for her leadership service to Feed More, the YMCA of Greater Richmond, the Richmond World Affairs Council and local chambers of commerce.
CO-FOUNDER, CO-EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN AND DIRECTOR, THE CARLYLE GROUP, MCLEAN
Conway is one of the three founders of The Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm that manages more than $220 billion in assets. Conway has an estimated worth of $3 billion but has said he planned to give as much as a third of his fortune away.
In the past few years, he has made inroads toward that goal by donating $40 million to The Catholic University of America, some of which was to create the Conway School of Nursing. He and his wife, Joanne, who also head the Bedford Falls Foundation, also donated $20 million to the University of Virginia School of Nursing in 2020, the school’s largest-ever gift.
“Given everything that is going on in our world — especially with the COVID-19 pandemic — we will need as many well-trained, compassionate health care professionals as we can get to address the increasingly complex health challenges,” Conway said this year.
Conway chairs the board of trustees of Johns Hopkins Medicine and is a trustee of Catholic University. He recently made news for donating more than $10 million to his son Bill’s unsuccessful bid to be state’s attorney of Cook County, Illinois.
CO-FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN EMERITUS, THE CARLYLE GROUP, MCLEAN
D’Aniello and business partners William E. Conway Jr. and David Rubenstein founded their Washington, D.C.-based private equity management firm in 1987 and built it into a behemoth that now oversees more than $220 billion in assets. The three men handed the company to a new team in 2018. Forbes estimates D’Aniello’s net worth at $3.4 billion.
D’Aniello has been generous with his money and this year he was named one of the region’s top 50 philanthropists by Washington Life Magazine. He focuses his giving on faith-based organizations; educational programs promoting free enterprise; the performing arts; and mental health. In 2014, the Vietnam War veteran gave his alma mater, Syracuse University, $20 million to create the National Veterans Resource Center.
“I’m investing in people,” he told The Washington Post. “And the people that I’m investing in are underprivileged or hold a core value that I believe in.” That same year, D’Aniello gave $20 million to a conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute.
D’Aniello chairs the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts and supports the Washington National Opera. “I’m a good Italian boy,” he says. “I love opera and anything that ends in a vowel.”
SECRETARY AND CO-CHAIRMAN, THE RUNNYMEDE CORP.,VIRGINIA BEACH
Fine has been with the Hampton Roads real estate development and management firm for 36 years, and his commitment to his company is mirrored by the numerous commitments he’s made to his home region.
He has served as rector of Eastern Virginia Medical School and as commissioner and vice chairman of the Virginia Beach Development Authority. Many of his charitable activities have reflected his interest in the arts. Fine is a former president of the Virginia Beach Arts and Humanities Commission and a past chairman and director of Norfolk’s Chrysler Museum of Art. He led the effort to save the De Witt Cottage, the oldest remaining structure on the Virginia Beach waterfront, and headed fundraising to save Norfolk’s Attucks Theatre, once called the Apollo Theater of the South.
Most recently, Fine co-founded the ViBe Creative District to help revitalize a historic but languishing neighborhood in Virginia Beach. ViBe offers loan assistance to encourage arts and entertainment and sponsors free events and public artwork. One big success has been ViBe’s creation of a milelong tour of murals created by local artists.
In 2017, Fine and his brother, Morris, shared the Outstanding Philanthropist of Hampton Roads award.
CO-CHAIRMAN, THE RUNNYMEDE CORP.,VIRGINIA BEACH
Fine has been practicing law for 55 years, and he and his brother, Andrew, have been part of Runnymede’s leadership for a combined century. He represents the company and private clients on issues including land and business development as well as civil litigation. He is a principal in the law firm of Fine, Fine, Legum & McCracken LLP, which was founded by his father, Louis, in 1923.
Fine has been active in many area civic organizations, at one time chairing the board of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and serving as acting president for the Virginia Marine Science Museum (now the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center). He was the president and a trustee of the Virginia Beach Foundation for 32 years. A graduate of the University of Virginia, he also is a past president of the Virginia Beach Library Foundation. He served as director of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association from 1960 to 1992.
In 2015, Fine received the Barron F. Black Community Builder award from the Hampton Roads Community Foundation in honor of his service to the region. In 2017, he and his brother shared the Outstanding Philanthropist of Hampton Roads award as well.
Founder, THE RICHARD AND LESLIE GILLIAM FOUNDATION, KESWICK
Gilliam believes in taking care of his own.
In 2010, when he sold his Abingdon-based coal-extracting company, Cumberland Resources Corp., for $960 million, he gave his employees more than $80 million. The very next year, he and his wife, Leslie Flanary Gilliam, since deceased, created the Richard and Leslie Gilliam Foundation, which is dedicated to improving the quality of life in Southwest Virginia and Eastern Kentucky.
Education is one of Gilliam’s biggest charitable interests and in 2011, his foundation pledged $8.3 million for a health and wellness center at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise.
That was followed in 2018 by a donation of $5.2 million to James Madison University to fund the Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship, named in honor of his wife, a member of the JMU class of 1982.
Last year, Gilliam’s foundation again showed its support for his home turf with a gift of more than $1 million to be distributed to laid-off coal miners in the region. At the time, Dan Mosley, the top official in Harlan County, Kentucky, said that Gilliam “always had an impeccable reputation for taking care of people. … I’m very humbled that our people mean this much to him.”
RETIRED CHAIRMAN AND PRESIDENT, RIVERSTONE GROUP LLC, RICHMOND
Earlier this year, the Virginia General Assembly presented Goodwin with its Outstanding Virginian Award. In the citation, legislators wrote that the businessman and philanthropist “has touched countless lives and built a legacy of service that is an inspiration to all.”
Before retirement, Goodwin, the former co-owner of AMF Bowling Inc., headed a company that oversees several prominent pieces of Virginia real estate, including Richmond’s iconic The Jefferson Hotel and Charlottesville’s Keswick Hall and Golf Club.
Goodwin’s philanthropy has benefited both Virginia Tech, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, from which he holds an MBA. Goodwin also has been a huge supporter of cancer research, and his generosity was recognized with a Medal of Honor from the American Cancer Society. By some estimates, he and his wife, Alice, have made charitable donations of more than $88 million.
Goodwin chairs the GO Virginia Region 4 Council, which recommends state economic development grants in the greater Richmond region. He is the former vice rector of U.Va.’s board of visitors and is chairman emeritus of the VCU College of Engineering Foundation Board of Trustees. He was inducted into the Greater Richmond Business Hall of Fame in 2000.
DEVELOPER; DIRECTOR EMERITUS AND FOUNDING CHAIRMAN EMERITUS, FLINT HILL SCHOOL, BROAD RUN
Love him or hate him, and powerful forces in Northern Virginia once lined up on both sides of that equation, Hazel was instrumental in transforming the region from a backwater into an exurban commercial center. In his book “Edge City: Life on the New Frontier,” Joel Garreau wrote that the lawyer-turned-developer did “more to shape the Washington area than any man since Pierre L’Enfant.”
Hazel pursued his agenda with vigor and often turned to the courts to make his case. In his heyday, he never lost a zoning case in the Virginia Supreme Court, Garreau says.
Hazel was at ground zero in the transformation of Tysons, then called Tysons Corner, from a quiet crossroads into a business hub. He also partnered with Milton V. Peterson to develop enormous residential enclaves such as Fairfax Station and Fair Lakes. Often, he partnered with his brother, William, who headed one of the region’s largest construction firms.
Hazel also was an early supporter of George Mason University and assisted the school in acquiring the land for its Fairfax campus. He served multiple terms on GMU’s board and helped create the George Mason University Foundation.
Hazel lives on a 4,000-plus-acre farm in Fauquier County.
FOUNDER, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, ARMADA HOFFLER PROPERTIES Inc., CAPE CHARLES
Hoffler, a childhood friend once told The Virginian-Pilot, “developed this vision of where he wanted to take his life.” That vision led him to found Armada Hoffler in 1979. “I have become very comfortable with where I am and what I have achieved,” Hoffler told the newspaper.
His real estate investment trust develops, builds, acquires and manages office, retail and multifamily properties. Earlier this year it was valued at $784 million, but, as with so many other businesses, COVID-19 has posed a challenge. In March, Armada Hoffler deferred three projects because of the virus, and more recently, a deal to sell seven of its shopping centers for $106.5 million floundered before a sale went through at the reduced price of $90 million.
In 1987, Hoffler was named an “Outstanding Citizen of Hampton Roads.” He has served on the University of Virginia’s board of visitors and is a former chairman of the Hampton Roads Partnership. In 2005, he resigned his chairmanship of the board of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries over a controversial safari trip he took with three department officials.
Hoffler and his wife, Valerie, live at a beachfront estate in Cape Charles.
PRESIDENT, THE JOHNSON FAMILY FOUNDATION, VIRGINIA BEACH
Johnson-Marquart is the great-great-granddaughter of S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. founder Samuel Curtis Johnson Sr. and has an estimated wealth of $3.8 billion. She is the only one of four siblings who does not live in Racine, Wisconsin, where S.C. Johnson, maker of such iconic household products as Pledge, Raid, Windex and Saran Wrap, is based.
Since 2004, Johnson-Marquart has headed the Johnson Family Foundation, which is committed to the environment, education, youth services, and equality and social progress. Since its inception in 1990, the charity has awarded more than $50 million in grants. In response to COVID-19, the foundation has pledged to loosen or eliminate restrictions on current grants and make new grants as unencumbered as possible. It also is contributing to efforts to address the health and economic hardships of those most affected by the virus.
Attending Cornell is a tradition in the Johnson family, one that Johnson-Marquart followed, graduating in 1981, and, in 2017, she and her siblings pledged $150 million to Cornell to fund the S.C. Johnson College of Business. It was one of the largest naming grants ever awarded to a business school.
RETIRED PRESIDENT AND CEO, NORTHERN VIRGINIA TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL, MCLEAN
After 22 years leading the Northern Virginia Technology Council, which promotes the “technology ecosystem,” Kilberg retired on June 30.
In an interview with The Fairfax Journal, she said she was most proud of helping to drive the phenomenal growth of the region’s technology sector. Thanks in large part to Kilberg’s efforts, the council now represents about 1,000 companies and organizations and 350,000 employees across Northern Virginia.
A former political adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, Kilberg is a longtime GOP fundraiser who served as deputy assistant to the president for public liaison and also as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.
Among other honors, she won the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Technology in 2004 and was declared Washingtonian’s Business Leader of the Year in 2009.
“No one has done as much as Bobbie to knit the regional technology community together,” says Victor Hoskins, CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. “By convening the tech community in so many ways over so many years, she really has helped raise the profile of Northern Virginia as one of the world’s technology capitals.”
RETIRED CHAIRMAN, MARKEL CORP., RICHMOND
Fortune 500 insurance holding company Markel Corp. generated $6.8 billion in revenue in 2019. Kirshner had a lot to do with the company growing to that scale.
Kirshner started at the company in 1960 and became its CEO in 1986, the year that Markel went public. At that time, the company was valued at $15 million and its stock sold for $8.33 a share. Today, Markel is valued at more than $15.5 billion, and on June 27, its stock sold for $882.33 a share.
Known for his easy-going manner, Kirshner held the top spot at Markel until 2015, when he stepped away from daily operations and became executive chairman. Last year, after 59 years with the company, he retired, assuming the honorary title of chairman emeritus. Kirshner also is a co-founder and longtime board member of the Faison Center, a Richmond facility for children and adults with autism.
Kirshner was the force behind what the company calls “the Markel Style,” a credo for doing business that emphasizes honesty, hard work and the pursuit of excellence — all while maintaining a sense of humor.
“I look back and, hell, it’s been a good run,” he once told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Like Sinatra said, ‘We did it our way.’”
CHAIRMAN, HARVEY LINDSAY COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE, NORFOLK
Lindsay is known for his business acumen and his commitment to social justice.
He has been a Realtor since 1954, when he joined his father’s firm after a stint serving in the Marines beginning during the Korean War. He became president and CEO of the family firm in 1969 and the nonagenarian still serves as its chairman. The firm specializes in the sale, leasing, management, financing and development of commercial properties. In 2019, Old Dominion University named its real estate program for him.
Some of the projects the award-winning real estate professional has developed include Tidewater Community College, Waterside Festival Marketplace and Military Circle Mall.
In Korea, the U.Va. grad served side by side with African Americans, which he says opened his eyes to racial bias and led to his vow to do something about it. In the 1950s, he chaired the biracial Citizens Advisory Committee, which sought to reopen public schools after Norfolk closed them rather than integrate.
“For his optimism, his regional vision and his commitment to justice for all,” the Civic Leadership Institute presented Lindsay its 2018 Darden Award for regional leadership. Today he serves on the boards of the General Douglas MacArthur Foundation and the Harbor’s Edge Charitable Foundation.
NON-EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, WESTROCK Co., RICHMOND
When MeadWestvaco merged with the larger RockTenn Co. in 2015, Luke, then MeadWestvaco’s CEO, said, “We are leveraging the strength of both companies into a larger, more diverse, more balanced and more global business.” What he didn’t say was that the merger meant the end of an era. Under various names, MeadWestvaco had been associated with six generations of the Luke family dating back 127 years.
Nevertheless, Luke’s transition to non-executive chairman was an unusually gracious one, so much so that in 2018 the Financial Times Outstanding Directors Exchange named him one of its directors of the year. It specifically lauded Luke for making “the often-perilous transition from chairman and CEO to non-executive chair of the newly formed WestRock board in rare style.”
Luke has been active on many industry and civic boards, including those of BNY Mellon, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Enterprise Institute. Closer to home, he has served on the boards of Dominion Energy Midstream Partners LP, the Community Foundation for a greater Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
CO-OWNER, MARS INC., THE PLAINS
“Reclusive” may be the adjective most often linked to the 80-year-old heiress, who, along with her two brothers, inherited the candy and food company after the death of their father, Forrest Mars Sr., in 1999. Forbes ranks her as the 29th-richest person in the world and the fifth-richest woman. She also is the wealthiest person in the commonwealth, with a reported worth of $28.9 billion.
Mars is a philanthropist focused on education, the arts and conservation. In 2017, she put her 200-acre-plus farm in The Plains under the perpetual protection of the Land Trust of Virginia. She is an active participant in horse country life, as well, sitting on the boards of the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation and Middleburg’s National Sporting Library & Museum. She also serves on the advisory council of Journey Through Hallowed Ground.
In 2013, Mars was the object of unwanted attention when she was responsible for a car crash that killed an elderly woman. She said she fell asleep at the wheel. Pleading guilty to misdemeanor reckless driving, Mars lost her license for six months and paid a $2,500 fine. Mars said she would live with grief for the rest of her life.
FAMILY AMBASSADOR TO PET CARE DIVISION, MARS INC., ALEXANDRIA
Like her Aunt Jacqueline, Mars-Wright is determinedly private. She is a fourth-generation member of the family candy and food empire, inheriting about an 8% stake in Mars Inc. after the death of her father, Forrest Mars Jr., in 2016. In July, Forbes magazine reported her net worth at $7.2 billion, ranking her No. 70 on its list of the 400 wealthiest Americans.
Mars-Wright started work at the family company in 1986, serving in various roles, including plant director of the company’s pet care factory and manufacturing director at Mars Australia. In 2001, she joined the company’s board of directors and was its chairman from 2004 to 2008. She is now the family’s ambassador to the Mars pet care division.
Married with three children, Mars-Wright made news in 2019 for a $3.5 million donation that she and her son, Chance Wright, made to the Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Photographic Arts and Sciences.
In a rare 2008 interview, Mars-Wright told Campden FB, a publication covering wealthy, business-owning families, “If I go into a store — it doesn’t matter where I am in the world, I take great pride in seeing our products on the shelf, looking good.”
FORMER PRESIDENT AND CEO, AMTRAK; FORMER PRESIDENT AND CEO, NORFOLK SOUTHERN RAILWAY, CHARLOTTESVILLE
You could say that Moorman has a one-track mind, but that wouldn’t be quite accurate, because his mind ran on many tracks during his 40-year career as a railroad man.
Moorman began working for Southern Railway, later known as Norfolk Southern, in 1970, even before he graduated from Georgia Tech. He rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the company’s president, CEO and chairman. In 2015, when he retired from Norfolk Southern, the company honored him by naming its largest train classification yard — since idled — after him.
In 2016, Moorman was tapped to head Amtrak, and he remains a senior consultant to the company.
Moorman has a longstanding interest in environmental issues and is a former Virginia chapter director of The Nature Conservancy and a former trustee of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. He has served on the boards of Oracle, Chevron and Duke Energy.
As befits a veteran railroad man, Moorman has his own train car called Sandy Creek, built by Pullman in 1948 for New York Central Railroad’s flagship express passenger train, the 20th Century Limited express. An avid golfer, Moorman is a member of Augusta National Golf Club and has played in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am tournament.
EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, DOLLAR TREE STORES, CHESAPEAKE
During his 13-year tenure as CEO of the discount retailer, Sasser increased revenues from less than $1 billion in 2004 to revenues of more than $22 billion in 2017, when he transitioned from CEO to executive board chairman. He oversaw six acquisitions, including the $9.1 billion takeover of Family Dollar Stores in 2015, and expanded the chain from 1,200 outlets to more than 14,000.
“Bob’s vision has transformed Dollar Tree from a small, regional retailer to a world-class Fortune 150 company across the United States and Canada,” his successor, Gary Philbin, told Supermarket News on the occasion of Sasser’s retirement.
Since stepping down as CEO, Sasser has been the point man for the 69-acre Summit Pointe mixed-use development, home to Dollar Tree’s new 12-story headquarters, in Chesapeake’s Greenbrier area. Luxury housing, upscale retail and office space will be added to the campus this year.
The Florida State University graduate has been a generous patron to his alma mater, donating $1 million toward one of its building campaigns and establishing several scholarships. He serves on the boards of the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges and the Chrysler Museum of Art.
RETIRED CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, S&K FAMOUS BRANDS INC., RICHMOND
Siegel began working for the defunct discount menswear retailer 52 years ago. Under his watch, the family company, which got its start with one store in Richmond, expanded to more than 240 stores in 26 states. In 2009, it was forced into bankruptcy, however, a victim of the Great Recession and a heavy debt load. Still, Siegel said, “We had a very positive attitude on the lives of a lot of people over the years.”
When times were good, Siegel was generous. In 1994, he donated $7 million in S&K stock and cash to Virginia Commonwealth University, which used the funding to build the Stuart C. Siegel Center basketball arena. He spent 16 years on the university’s board of visitors, as well as serving as rector.
“I am proud of the progress that the university made, and I’m happy to have played some role in that over all of those years,” Siegel said.
In 2013, VCU awarded Siegel its highest honor, the Wayne Medal, for his outstanding service to the university. Two years earlier, Siegel was recognized by the Richmond Jewish Foundation for his contributions to Jewish endowments. He also serves on the board of the Community Foundation for a greater Richmond.
FORMER PRESIDENT AND CEO, SUNTRUST, VIRGINIA DIVISION; FORMER PRESIDENT, UNION BANK AND TRUST, RICHMOND
Banking is in Stallings’ DNA. Straight out of Vanderbilt University in 1988, he went to work for National Commerce Financial and went on to have a 30-year career in the financial sector.
At National Commerce, he rose to head the institution’s retail banking operation. When SunTrust Banks bought National Commerce, he eventually became president and CEO of its Virginia operations. In 2017, he was named president of Richmond-based Union Bank & Trust, now Atlantic Union Bank.
Stallings held the presidency for less than a year before his health forced him to take a less demanding role as a part-time senior executive vice president. Then, just seven months later, he opted for retirement. “I was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a relatively rare disease also known as bile duct cancer,” Stallings said at the time.
Before his unexpected retirement, Stallings chaired the Virginia Bankers Association, the annual campaign of the YMCA of Greater Richmond and the annual campaign of the United Way of the Greater Triangle. In 2018, he won a Humanitarian Award from the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities. He currently volunteers for and supports several Virginia-based nonprofits.
CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, NEW RICHMOND VENTURES, RICHMOND
Ukrop is a well-known name in Richmond. The family’s eponymous supermarkets were a fixture in the city for 75 years. But in 2010, facing stiff new competition, Jim Ukrop and his brother, Robert, sold their grocery store chain and looked for new opportunities.
Robert founded Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods, but Jim went in a different direction, launching a venture capital firm called New Richmond Ventures, or NRV, to raise money from investors to fund mostly local startups.
NRV has raised more than $88 million and funded more than a dozen new businesses since its inception in 2011. Its investments are eclectic, ranging from Rockin’ Baby, which makes slings to carry infants, to SVT Robotics, which helps businesses simplify the use of industrial robotics.
“We look for companies that we think will solve a problem that’s never been solved before,” Ukrop says. “We look for something that will create jobs here in Richmond.”
“Jim is a futurist in the sense that he understands societal megatrends that are where the new business growth will come in the future,” says one of his NRV partners. In other words, Ukrop invests in the belief that the future is now.
FORMER U.S. SENATOR, ALEXANDRIA
Warner, a moderate Republican, was Virginia’s second longest-serving U.S. senator, representing the commonwealth in the U.S. Senate for five terms, from 1979 to 2009. The nonagenarian is a veteran of World War II and the Korean War who graduated from Washington and Lee University and received his law degree from the University of Virginia.
Before he began his Senate career, Warner was secretary of the Navy during the Nixon administration and, in 1974, headed up the federal government’s American Revolution Bicentennial Administration. He was famously the sixth husband of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor.
As Virginia’s senior U.S. senator, he was chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, advocating for Virginia’s military installations and shipbuilding industry. He also bucked the GOP on occasion, supporting gun control measures, Roe v. Wade and embryonic stem cell research.
In July, Warner donated $150,000 to endow a new scholarship to train the next generation of leaders at the University of Virginia Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership.
“He believes in bipartisanship, working together to build trust and solutions, and he loves the University of Virginia, and what it did for him and his life,” said Sorensen Institute Director Larry Roberts.
RETIRED PRESIDENT AND CEO, LANDMARK COMMUNICATIONS INC., VIRGINIA BEACH
When Wynne retired in 2001 after 27 years at the helm of Landmark Communications, which owned The Weather Channel and The Virginian-Pilot, his successor, Decker Anstrom, said Wynne had given “120% of his energy … to making our company successful. Now he has chosen to redirect that enormous energy to the people who are closest to him and to the charitable causes he enjoys.”
A member of the Cable Hall of Fame for his work on The Weather Channel, Wynne has been active in far too many civic and business initiatives to list here, but a partial inventory includes the Hampton Roads Business Roundtable, the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, the Council on Virginia’s Future and the Virginia Business Higher Education Council.
In 2013, he received the Darden Award for Regional Leadership, which recognizes individuals who have significantly improved life in Hampton Roads.
“If you make a living in a community and you’re profitable and you’re supporting all these jobs, you really almost have an obligation to help the community be a better place,” he told The Virginian-Pilot, then added, “Nobody gets recognition for something that lots of other people didn’t contribute to.”
