Recent Articles from Virginia Business
Arts | Entertainment | Sports 2025: NYERGES, ALEX
Nyerges is now in his 19th year as director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Free to all visitors, the museum opened in 1936 and has more than 545,000 square feet of galleries, event space and dining. In the works is a 173,000-square-foot, $261 million expansion to be named for the late philanthropist Jim […]
Arts | Entertainment | Sports 2025: ROTHROCK, BEN
Becoming COO in 2023, Rothrock is now the highest-ranking Virginia- based boss of the Richmond Flying Squirrels Double-A baseball team, although he shares leadership with Brendon Porter, the team’s president, who spends part of his time in Alabama. Rothrock also held the title of general manager from 2017 until this year, when the team announced […]
Agriculture 2025: WIGNER, PRESTON D.
Wigner took the helm at Universal in October 2024, succeeding George C. Freeman, who retired after 16 years of running the world’s leading supplier of leaf tobacco. Wigner, who joined Universal in 2003, was appointed the agriproducts company’s senior vice president in 2023, as part of a succession planning process. Previously, he’d served as the […]
Nonprofits | Philanthropy 2025: GHANIM, ISAM
Ghanim returned to ChildFund International in 2022, becoming its ninth president and CEO. He previously was vice president for the Africa region, vice president of global operations and executive vice president for programs before leaving to serve as Search for Common Ground’s president in 2018. ChildFund, previously named the Christian Children’s Fund, spent $169 million […]
Real Estate 2025: LAUSTER, RONALD
President since 2018, Lauster manages a wide array of projects at the firm with $725 million in fiscal 2024 revenue. W.M. Jordan took on the second phase of the Norfolk-based Nauticus renovation and expansion, and Old Dominion University’s $184 million biological sciences building, the university’s largest academic building now under construction, for which the company […]
Real Estate 2025: SCHALL, BENJAMIN
Before becoming CEO in 2022, Schall joined AvalonBay as president in 2021. He also sits on the publicly traded real estate investment trust’s board of directors. AvalonBay acquires, develops and manages multifamily communities around the country, primarily focusing on metropolitan areas in New England, the mid-Atlantic, the Pacific Northwest and California. The company reported over [&hellip[...]
Real Estate 2025: LEON, MILES
As leader of one of the largest real estate development companies in the southeastern United States, Leon is responsible for all company operations and new business development. Founded in 1906, Nusbaum has a property management portfolio exceeding 30,000 multifamily units. Among other deals, the company is handling Texas convenience store chain Buc-ee’s expansion into the […]
Real Estate 2025: ROY, KIM
In 2017, Roy became the first nonfamily member to lead the then-80-year-old Hitt company. Interested in building from a young age, she graduated from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in construction and joined Hitt in 1999 as an assistant project manager. Founded in 1937, Hitt has more than 2,000 employees across 14 U.S. office […]
Real Estate 2025: LITTON JR., T. RICHARD
Litton oversees the day-to-day operations of the commercial real estate and management company, which currently boasts $20 billion in real estate investment properties, with diversified property portfolios including office, retail and multifamily properties. Litton also manages Harbor Group International’s transaction group, chairs the firm’s investment and credit committees and is a m[...]
Real Estate 2025: LUGG, RICK
In January, Lugg became Virginia Realtors’ new head, succeeding Terrie Suit, who retired last fall. Martin Johnson, the organization’s chief external affairs officer, served as interim CEO. Virginia Realtors represents nearly 35,000 Realtors and is billed as the state’s largest trade association. Lugg joined the organization in 2009 and was most recently its chief financial [&hel[...]