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Recent Articles from Kira Jenkins
Virginia 500 Spotlight: Tyrone Noel
MY ADVICE FOR NEW COLLEGE GRADS: Dream big. You can only reach your full potential if you stretch yourself. Also, embrace failure, and learn from it. A MOVIE THAT MADE AN IMPACT ON ME: “Moneyball.” Why? It takes courage to act. IF I HAD A TIME MACHINE, I’D MEET: Martin Luther King Jr. I’m [intrigued] […]
2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Torrece Gregoire
Known as “Chef T” from her time on the Fox TV reality cooking competition series “Hell’s Kitchen,” Gregoire is chef-owner of her Bristol-based restaurant, Union 41, which opened in 2023. Before that, the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts graduate was director of culinary operations at Draper Mercantile, based in Pulaski County, and served […]
2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Mark Johnson
Johnson’s perhaps best known as a community leader in Hampton Roads. In 2011, he started work with SunTrust, after 17 years with the United Way, and in 2019, SunTrust and BB&T merged, creating Truist. In 2023, he was promoted to his current post, helping fund nonprofit community organizations. In 2022, he was honored at the […]
StartVirginia: Heard Around Virginia – February 2025 edition
Crystal City venture capital firm America’s Frontier Fund is among the nation’s first VC firms to secure approval for up to $175 million in matching capital under the Small Business Investment Company Critical Technology Initiative, a federal program aimed at boosting investment in tech areas vital to national security. This funding for 2-year-old AFF, whose […]
2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Shaun Buford
Buford joined radio giant Audacy in 2012 as director of sales, receiving the additional title of vice president in 2022. Before joining Audacy, he was sales manager for CBS/Viacom and New Jersey-based radio station WQXR. In April 2024, Buford and Audacy stepped in for the rescheduled Something in the Water and held a music festival […]
FOR THE RECORD: February 2025 edition
CENTRAL Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a Massachusetts-based fusion energy company, plans to build the world’s first grid-scale commercial fusion power plant in Chesterfield County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Dec. 17, 2024. The project’s capital investment isn’t fully known yet, but Garrett Hart, Chesterfield’s director of economic development, said, “It will be in exc[...]
2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Michael Elliott
In 2022, Elliott was named VCU Health System’s first chief operating officer, and moved to Richmond from Lynchburg, where he was chief transformation officer at Centra Health. He also worked for Sentara Health and earned a doctorate in pharmacy and master’s in health administration at VCU. In 2024, he was elected chair of the Virginia […]
2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Roberta Tinch
Tinch has been a hospital leader for more than 15 years, including at HCA Johnston Willis Hospital in Richmond and HCA Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center, and has been recognized for her volunteer work by the March of Dimes. In 2023, Tinch was named one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Emerging Leaders. She joined Inova in […]
2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Melissa Cade
Cade was promoted to her current role in January 2024, after 24 years with the credit union as director of its call center, director of retail, regional president of branches and senior vice president of product and innovation. She now oversees Chartway’s branch and member care teams, as well as the credit union’s multicultural initiatives. […]
2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Yvonne Allmond
Allmond joined TowneBank in 2005 and has more than three decades of experience in banking and finance. Although she moved around in her youth as part of a military family, Allmond is today settled into Hampton Roads civic life, having served on boards for Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University Foundation and the Virginia Center […]
