Recent Articles from Virginia Business
Real Estate 2023: BRENDAN BECHTEL
Serving as CEO since 2016 and chairman since 2017, Bechtel is the fifth generation to lead his family-owned global engineering, construction and project management company. Ranked the nation’s second largest construction company by Engineering News-Record, Bechtel Corp. has completed more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries since its 1898 founding in San Francisco. The firm’s […]
Real Estate 2023: GERALD S. DIVARIS
Divaris co-founded Divaris Group in South Africa in 1974. Since 1981, the firm has been headquartered in Virginia. Divaris Real Estate, one of the companies under the Divaris Group umbrella, opened its first office in the United States in 1982 in Virginia. Along with its Virginia Beach headquarters, Divaris has offices in Newport News, Norfolk, […]
Real Estate 2023: FRANK ‘BUDDY’ GADAMS
Gadams and his firm are known for their commercial and residential projects, but he has also led community-based projects like the restoration of the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts. Gadams founded Marathon in 2000. He is also one of the founders of the YPO (formerly Young Presidents’ Organization) Virginia Chapter. A Downtown Norfolk Council member, […]
Real Estate 2023: TIMOTHY HELMIG
After joining Monday Properties in 2005, Helmig has led the company to capital investments of more than $16 billion, an expanded multifamily portfolio of 5,300 units, and executed transactions totaling more than 35 million square feet. Helmig’s brother-in-law, Anthony Westreich, founded Monday Properties and acquired a 2.5 million-square-foot Rosslyn portfolio of buildings in 2007, two […[...]
September 2023 Out and About
1. Virginia Western Community College Associate Professor Jenifer Kurtz helped situate bee colonies into a new home on campus this spring. In July, VWCC announced it had become an affiliate of conservation program Bee Campus USA. Photo by Amy White. 2. L to R: Frankie Holland, Bob Wilkin, Frank Garrett, Benita Jordan, Ginny Coleman, Ralph […]
Living Legends 2023: THE HON. ROGER L. GREGORY
The son of tobacco factory workers, Gregory has spent his life blazing trails. He’s the first person in his family to graduate from high school. After graduating from Virginia State University and the University of Michigan Law School, he and future Gov. L. Douglas Wilder founded a Richmond law firm in 1982. Wilder became the […]
Education 2023: KARL McDONNELL
McDonnell is CEO of Strategic Education, an education services holding company that owns for-profit Strayer and Capella universities, the Jack Welch Management Institute and nondegree schools DevMountain, Hackbright Academy and Sophia Learning. Strategic Education was formed in 2018 by the $2 billion merger of Strayer Education and Capella Education. McDonnell was previously president and CEO [&he[...]
Federal Contractors | Technology 2023: REX D. GEVEDEN
Before joining BWXT in 2015 as its chief operating officer, Geveden was an executive at Teledyne Technologies, as well as a chief engineer and associate administrator at NASA, where he ran support contracts for the International Space Station and helped develop next-generation lunar vehicles. In 2017, he became CEO of the Lynchburg-based manufacturer of nuclear […]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2023: KEVIN MURPHY
It’s been an eventful year for the North American subsidiary of U.K. plumbing and heating products distributor Ferguson, which saw its revenues jump from $22.8 billion in 2021 to $28.6 billion in 2022. In September 2022, the company, which does almost all its business in North America, announced a collaboration with automaker Ford in which […]
Nonprofits | Philanthropy 2023: KEVIN A. LYNCH
The National Industries for the Blind (NIB) plays a critical role in enhancing the independence of people who are blind by offering career training and connecting them to employment opportunities. Lynch has worked for the NIB and its associated agencies since 1994, serving as president and CEO since 2008. He was instrumental in initiating NSITE, […]