Va. Chamber honors four execs with lifetime achievement awards

The Virginia Chamber of Commerce honored four Virginia business leaders with lifetime achievement awards during a May 16 ceremony at The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.

The honorees were: Carilion Clinic CEO Nancy Howell Agee; Michael Daniels, chairman of the board of CACI International; Benjamin Davenport Jr., chairman of the board of First Piedmont and Davenport Energy; and James Dyke, senior advisor with McGuireWoods Consulting.

“We are delighted to recognize the individual achievements of each honoree who has helped shape Virginia as a best state for business,” Virginia Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Barry DuVal said in a statement. “Their visionary leadership and commitment to excellence serve as an inspiration for current and future generations of business leaders.”

Honored by the chamber for her “lifetime of exemplary leadership in health care and economic development in the commonwealth,” Agee oversees a $2.4 billion health system that employs 14,000 workers and serves more than 1 million people across western Virginia and West Virginia. It has seven hospitals and a physician group with more than 1,000 doctors. She has served as CEO since 2011 and also served as president until 2023. Prior to that, she served as executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Daniels was honored for “a career dedicated to positioning the commonwealth as a technology leader and promoting a thriving economy supported by a world-class workforce.” CACI’s chairman since January 2021, he previously served as chairman and CEO of Network Solutions and held several executive roles at Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), among many other executive roles. He also was a former senior White House adviser on international technology and a senior adviser to the National Security Council.

Davenport was honored for his “lifetime commitment to excellence in education, workforce development and improving the business climate of the commonwealth.” A Virginia Tech alumnus, Davenport is a past rector for Tech, which in 2016 awarded him the university’s highest honor, the William H. Ruffner Medal. He serves on boards for GO Virginia and The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville. Davenport Energy supplies propane and fuel oil to more than 30,000 customers in Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia, and gasoline and diesel fuel to more than 200 convenience stores.

The commonwealth’s first Black secretary of education, Dyke was honored for “a lifetime commitment to excellence in education, workforce development, diversity and improving the business climate of the commonwealth.” Dyke also is a past chair (1999-2000) of the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, breaking barriers as the first Black professional to hold that position since the chamber’s 1925 founding. Dyke was valedictorian of Howard University’s law school in 1971, and, in addition to serving under Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, he was a domestic policy adviser to Vice President Walter Mondale and was instrumental in opening Virginia Military Institute to women after a landmark 1996 U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down VMI’s males-only admissions policy. Dyke’s clients at McGuireWoods Consulting have included George Washington University and the George Mason University Foundation.

In accepting the award, Dyke thanked the chamber for “giving me the opportunity to help develop bipartisan, policy-focused business support for needed improvements in education and workforce preparation programs — changes that will provide every Virginian with the opportunity to succeed and help grow our economy.”