Sign In
Free Newsletter
Recent Articles from Virginia Business
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2023: JAMES GRAMM
In 1983, barely five years after graduating from high school in Alexandria, Gramm sold two new cars on his first day as a sales rep at a dealership in Vienna. “The retail automobile business,” he says, “has been in my blood ever since.” Gramm worked in car sales in Virginia and Maryland, rising to vice […]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2023: POUL WEIHRAUCH
Since taking over the reins at the candy and pet food giant in September 2022, Weihrauch has set a goal of doubling its sales by 2033. With $45 billion in sales in 2022, Mars is the largest privately held company in Virginia and the fourth largest in the nation. It has approximately 140,000 employees in […]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2023: JACK WOODFIN
For Woodfin, heating and cooling is a family affair: His parents, John and Anne, started Woodfin Heating in 1977 to sell heating oil, growing it into one of the largest privately held HVAC-related businesses in Virginia. A Virginia Military Institute and University of Virginia Darden School of Business alum, Woodfin began working with his parents […]
Finance | Insurance 2023: JOSEPH W. ‘JOE’ MONTGOMERY
It’s coming up on Montgomery’s 50th anniversary of working at Optimal Service Group of Wells Fargo Advisors, a wealth management firm with about $28 billion in funds under advisement. A former All-American captain of William & Mary’s football team, Montgomery was inducted this year into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. When he wasn’t chosen […]
Hospitality | Tourism 2023: CLIFFORD B. ‘CLIFF’ FLEET
A corporate executive and college professor, Fleet became the ninth president of the world’s largest living history museum in 2020. He is charged with sharing America’s enduring story with new and diverse audiences, while improving its financial health. Before joining the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Fleet served as CEO and president of 22nd Century Group and, […]
Real Estate 2023: LOUIS J. ROGERS
Since Rogers founded Capital Square in 2012, the real estate investment company has completed more than $7.5 billion in transaction volume and grew from handling mainly Delaware Statutory Trust 1031 Exchange offerings to launching a real estate investment trust and developing and operating multifamily properties across the nation. In September 2022, Rogers’ son-in-law, Whitson Huffman, […[...]
Real Estate 2023: TERRIE L. SUIT
When Suit started her career, she worked for a builder, then became a Realtor and later a mortgage loan officer. Today, after serving as the state’s first secretary of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, as well as a Republican state delegate for eight years, Suit now leads Virginia’s largest trade association. She advocates for 38,000 […]
Energy 2023: ROBERT DUVALL
As president of VNG for the second time, Duvall is responsible for the delivery of natural gas to more than 310,000 customers in southeastern Virginia. A civil engineering graduate of Clemson University, Duvall started his career in 1984 as a distribution engineer at Atlanta Gas Light, a subsidiary of Southern Company Gas, VNG’s Atlanta-based parent […]
Economic Development 2023: ANTHONY ROMANELLO
In the past year, Romanello was instrumental in growing Henrico’s data center footprint, as QTS Data Centers announced a 1.5 million-square-foot expansion to be completed in 2024, and the DE-CIX Richmond internet exchange opened in November 2022. In other sectors, education research firm EAB announced it was bringing 200 more jobs to Henrico, and plans […]
Education 2023: BRIAN O. HEMPHILL
Hemphill arrived at Old Dominion in 2021 with big goals for the 93-year-old public R1 research university, like the April opening of the Hampton Roads Biomedical Research Consortium, a partnership among ODU, Norfolk State University, Eastern Virginia Medical School and Sentara Health. The consortium aims to jumpstart scientific research and address health care disparities in […]
