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DALAL SALOMON 

When Dalal Salomon first went to work in the financial sector in the 1980s, compensation was strictly on a commission basis. That meant no vacation, no sick leave and no paycheck unless she could drum up clients. At her first firm, where she was a novelty as the first and only female financial planner, she was expected to make cold phone calls. Instead, although she describes herself as an introvert, and, although it almost got her fired, she went in person to local businesses “to look the owners in the eye and show them that I was a genuine person who wanted to help them achieve financial independence. 

“You don’t have to always follow the existing rules on how to be a success,” she says. “Perseverance is underestimated, but perseverance is huge.” 

That perseverance led her to a job at Wells Fargo and, then, in 2009, to partner with Dan Ludwin to establish wealth management firm Salomon & Ludwin. This year, both Forbes and Barron’s ranked Salomon among the top wealth advisers in Virginia. 

Salomon & Ludwin’s co-founders and their staff have donated their time to local causes such as building houses and tutoring, but Salomon says the most gratifying part of her career has been the cards and calls she’s received from women who heard her story and realized they, too, could succeed on their own terms.

“I showed them that they could do it, too,” she says. “I helped change their lives.” 

RELATED STORY: 2024 Virginia Women in Leadership Awards

Virginia Business announces 2024 Va. CFO Awards winners

Virginia Business recognized some of the state’s top chief financial officers from nonprofits and businesses across the commonwealth Thursday at its 2024 Virginia CFO Awards ceremony.

This year’s Virginia CFO Awards black-tie banquet — the largest annual gathering of CFOs in Virginia — was held at The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.

“Being nominated for these awards is no small achievement,” Virginia Business President and Publisher Bernie Niemeier said during the awards ceremony. “All nominees are winners in their own right, helping to lead their companies to excellence around the commonwealth and in some cases the nation and globally.”

Nineteen CFOs from around the commonwealth were nominated in three award categories, representing a variety of nonprofits, government agencies and for-profit businesses, public and private. Organizations represented included universities, health care systems, construction firms. law firms and manufacturers.

Winners and finalists for the magazine’s 18th annual Virginia CFO Awards were:

  • 2024 NONPROFIT/GOVERNMENT VIRGINIA CFO OF THE YEAR: John Zabrowski III – VHC Health; Finalists: Jackson Green – Goodwill Industries of the Valleys; Heather Hardiman – Tidewater Community College; Courtney Jarrett – Shenandoah University; Juanita Parks – Williamsburg Landing
  • 2024 SMALL COMPANY VIRGINIA CFO OF THE YEAR: Joel Flax – Cohen Investment Group; Finalists: Anna Amirsoltani – Cassaday & Company Inc.; BJ Brown – The Law Office of Craig A Brown; Colleen Murphy – Walsh Electric; Chris Plyler – Credit Control Corp.
  • 2024 LARGE COMPANY VIRGINIA CFO OF THE YEAR: Sean Daily – CAES; Finalists: Matt Greiner – Weidmuller USA; Barbara Holcomb – Sentry Equipment and Erectors; Paul Huckfeldt – Hooker Furnishings; Angie Loew – Breeden Construction; Holly Powell – Carpenter; Chip Thomas – Marsh McLennan Agency; Bob Wills, The Branch Group; Dale Young – RecruitMilitary

The three winners will be profiled in the August 2024 issue of Virginia Business.

Capital One, Walmart end credit card agreement

McLean-based Capital One Financial is no longer the exclusive issuer of Walmart consumer credit cards.

The two Fortune Global 500 companies announced Friday that they had ended their consumer card agreement. The announcement follows problems first uncovered in late 2022 and early 2023, according to Reuters reporting.

Capital One became the exclusive issuer of Walmart’s private label and co-branded credit card program in the U.S. on Aug. 1, 2019, after the bank and retail giant announced the partnership in 2018. Their agreement followed the end of Arkansas-based Walmart’s nearly 20-year partnership with Synchrony Financial.

In April 2023, Walmart filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to end the partnership. The retailer said the bank failed to deliver customer replacement cards within five days and to promptly update transaction and payment information in customer accounts. A federal judge ruled in March that Walmart could end the credit card partnership with Capital One.

Cardholders, though, can continue to earn and redeem rewards, and until informed otherwise, can continue to use their Capital One Walmart Rewards cards wherever Mastercard is accepted, according to a news release.

Capital One retains ownership and servicing of the credit card portfolio, which, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, totals approximately $8.5 billion in loans. The company expects to convert eligible customers into Capital One-branded cards.

The end of the agreement also terminates the companies’ revenue-sharing and loss-sharing agreements.

Capital One is in the process of buying Discover Financial Services in a $35.3 billion all-stock deal, but the deal has come under federal scrutiny.

As of March 31, Capital One and its subsidiaries had $351 billion in deposits and $481.7 billion in total assets. Capital One ranked No. 106 on Fortune magazine’s 2023 Fortune 1000 list and No. 386 on its 2023 Global 500 list.

Chesterfield fintech Paymerang to be acquired for $475M

Chesterfield County-based payment and invoice automation company Paymerang has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Atlanta-based corporate payments processor Corpay for $475 million, according to an SEC filing by Corpay and a news release.

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of the year, subject to regulatory approval and standard closing conditions. McLean-based Aldrich Capital Partners, a growth equity firm, is parting with Paymerang, after acquiring the company in 2018 following a $26 million investment.

Corpay’s acquisition of Paymerang expands the Atlanta’s company presence in education, health care, hospitality and manufacturing, according to the news release. Paymerang has 300 employees and the company will stay where it is, with no leadership changes expected, a company spokesperson told Virginia Business.

“This acquisition is right in our wheelhouse and exactly the kind of transaction we find most attractive. It’s a business growing over 20%, within corporate payments, where we can accelerate growth and profitability,” Corpay Chairman and CEO Ron Clarke said in a statement. “It will help us sell more in several large verticals where Paymerang has a strong position with satisfied customers, ERPs and partners.”

Paymerang has more than 250,000 merchants and Corpaly’s network is more than 1 million vendors and together the businesses will process $120 billion in annual spending.

“Partnering with Aldrich was a game-changer for us during this journey. They provided more than just capital; they were actively involved in refining our go-to-market strategies and scaling our sales model. Their operational expertise helped us expand our product line and steered us through a period of rapid expansion, leading to an astonishing 1200% growth since 2017,” Paymerang CEO Nasser Chanda said in a statement. “Now, by joining Corpay, we are set to broaden our offerings to include cross-border payments and commercial card solutions, marking an exciting new chapter for our team. This transition is a major win for our customers, partners and the Richmond business community.”

In April 2023, Paymerang acquired Australian-based AI data extraction and analysis platform Sypht and the assets of KwikTag, an invoice automation company. Paymerang expanded to Southwest Virginia in August 2022, creating 50 jobs in Wise County.

 

Chartway Credit Union names new CFO

Virginia Beach-based Chartway Credit Union has hired Sander Casino as its chief financial officer, the credit union announced Wednesday.

Casino was most recently senior vice president of finance for Raleigh, North Carolina-based Local Government Federal Credit Union and its affiliate Civic Credit Union. Before joining LGFCU in 2012 and Civic in 2018, Casino was with RBC Bank for about a decade, where he was director of treasury. He has 26 years of experience in the financial sector.

“Sander’s résumé speaks for itself, but the distinction between who he is and what he does is evident,” Chartway President and CEO Brian Schools said in a statement. “He’s a great person and will be a great leader at Chartway.”

Casino has a bachelor’s degree in business administration in finance from the University of Massachusetts’ Isenberg School of Management, a graduate certificate in financial markets from Boston University, and an advanced certificate in management, innovation and technology from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

With branches in Utah, Texas and Virginia, Chartway has more than 230,000 members and about $2.7 billion in total assets.

 

 

Wilbanks Smith and Thomas acquired

Norfolk-based Wilbanks Smith and Thomas Asset Management has been acquired by Cleveland-based registered investment adviser Clearstead Advisors.

The companies signed the merger in February 2024. Financial terms of the acquisition, which closed April 1, were not disclosed. Clearstead rebranded WST’s advisory business as Clearstead Advisory Solutions, a division of Clearstead Advisors.

A wealth and investment management firm, Wilbanks Smith and Thomas (WST) had more than $5 billion of assets under management as of Dec. 31, 2023, according to a news release. After the closure of the merger, Clearstead and its subsidiaries have about $44 billion in total assets under advisement, including $20 billion in total assets under management, 225 employees and offices in nine cities.

The six WST partners became shareholders in Clearstead, giving it a total of 65 employee-owners. The division’s 45 employees will continue to serve clients from offices in Norfolk, Roanoke and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Former WST Managing Principal and Chief Investment Officer Wayne Wilbanks co-founded WST in 1990 and will continue to lead the division in Norfolk and the mid-Atlantic states, now as executive managing director of Clearstead Advisory Solutions.

“We are philosophically similar to Clearstead in our client approach and a strong complement geographically, given our presence in the mid-Atlantic and Southern states,” Wilbanks said in a statement. “Most importantly, our clients will benefit from Clearstead’s family office planning capabilities, alternative investments platform, in-house research and wealth management capabilities.”

WST is Clearstead’s largest acquisition so far. Since Chicago-based private equity firm Flexpoint Ford purchased a majority stake in Clearstead in 2022, the Cleveland-based firm has made a string of acquisitions, including Cleveland-based wealth managers Burkhart & Co. and Scott Snow (financial advisers) and Santa Fe, New Mexico-based financial adviser Avalon Trust.

“Strategic and prudent mergers make us a stronger firm — each brings talent and capabilities to serve clients more effectively, which is our primary focus,” Clearstead CEO and Co-Chairman Dave Fulton said in a statement. “This is the impetus for our combination with WST, for which we have the highest hopes.”

Capital One-Discover deal faces federal scrutiny

McLean-based Capital One Financial announced plans in February to buy Discover Financial Services for $35.3 billion in an all-stock deal that would mark Capital One’s largest ever acquisition and make it the nation’s biggest credit card lender.

The transaction is expected to close in late 2024 or early 2025, according to the banks. At close, Capital One shareholders would own about 60% of the combined company, and Discover shareholders would hold approximately 40%.

However, the deal must receive federal regulatory approval to move forward, and the Biden White House has fought consolidation of large corporations, including the proposed $3.8 billion merger of JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines, which was called off in March after the airlines lost an antitrust lawsuit. Although it’s the first bank merger of this size proposed during President Joe Biden’s term, he enacted an executive order in 2021 encouraging federal agencies with authority over banks, including the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., to update their guidelines on banking mergers “to provide more robust scrutiny.”

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement following the Capital One-Discover announcement that “a rubber-stamped merger that makes powerful financial companies even bigger and more powerful will do nothing for families.” From both sides of the aisle, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, urged the Biden administration to block the deal, with Hawley charging it would grant Capital One “unprecedented powers to extort American consumers.”

If the merger goes through, Capital One would use Discover’s credit card payment network to process transactions, instead of relying on Visa and Mastercard platforms. Also, with Discover’s banking business included, Capital One would have more than $450 billion in deposits.

“From Capital One’s founding days, we set out to build a payments and banking company powered by modern technology. Our acquisition of Discover is a singular opportunity to bring together two very successful companies with complementary capabilities and franchises, and to build a payments network that can compete with the largest payments networks and payments companies,” Capital One Chairman, CEO and founder Richard Fairbank said in a statement.

Illinois-based Discover has a market value of about $27.6 billion. Capital One has a market capitalization of about $52.2 billion and reported $34.25 billion in 2022 revenue.  

Deputy Editor Kate Andrews contributed to this story.

Virginia Tech announces new CFO

Virginia Tech has hired Simon Allen as its chief financial officer and vice president for finance, the university announced Monday.

Allen is currently vice president for finance and CFO of the Ithaca campus of Cornell University. In his new role, which he’ll start May 6, Allen will report to Virginia Tech Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Amy Sebring. Ken Miller, who had served as Virginia Tech’s vice president for finance since 2020, announced his retirement in September 2023. He had worked for the university for 35 years.

Allen will support the teaching, research and outreach missions of Virginia Tech, become a member of the President’s Council and hold direct responsibility for oversight and management of the university’s key financial operations, including budget and financial planning, capital financing, financial reporting, treasury management, accounting, the university bursar, insurance, payroll, travel, procurement and tax, according to a news release.

“Throughout his career in both the private sector and in higher education, Simon has demonstrated his ability to bring stakeholders together to solve complex problems in ways that are mission-driven and people focused,” Sebring said in a statement. “Simon’s financial expertise and collaborative leadership style will enable Virginia Tech to continue elevating our financial services in support of the university’s strategic objectives and build upon Virginia Tech’s track record of strong financial management and positioning.”

Allen spent about 5 1/2 years at Cornell, where he oversaw an annual operating budget of about $6 billion, net assets of $14 billion, a debt portfolio of $1.9 billion and $1 billion in capital assets, while providing oversight support for Cornell’s three campuses in Ithaca, New York, and New York City. Before he worked for Cornell, Allen worked in finance, as U.S. managing editor of real estate private equity for European asset management firm Amundi Asset Management.

Allen earned his MBA with concentrations in finance and economics from the University of Warwick, in Coventry, United Kingdom, a master’s degree in environmental management from Duke University and a bachelor’s degree in urban estate management from the University of Westminster in London.

Capital One to buy Discover in $35.3B deal

UPDATED 8:35 P.M. Feb. 19

McLean-based Capital One Financial is buying Discover Financial Services for $35.3 billion in an all-stock deal that marks Capital One’s largest ever acquisition, the two credit card giants announced Monday evening.

Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, Discover shareholders will receive 1.0192 Capital One shares for each share of Discover, representing a premium of 26.6% based on a Feb. 16 closing price of $110.49 for Discover shares.

The transaction is expected to close in late 2024 or early 2025, according to a news release. At close, Capital One shareholders will own about 60% of the combined company, and Discover shareholders will hold the remaining approximately 40%. Upon closing, three Discover board members will join Capital One’s board.

“From Capital One’s founding days, we set out to build a payments and banking company powered by modern technology. Our acquisition of Discover is a singular opportunity to bring together two very successful companies with complementary capabilities and franchises, and to build a payments network that can compete with the largest payments networks and payments companies,” said Capital One Chairman, CEO and founder Richard Fairbank in a statement. “Through this combination, we’re creating a company that is exceptionally well-positioned to create significant value for consumers, small businesses, merchants and shareholders as technology continues to transform the payments and banking marketplace.”

“The transaction with Capital One brings together two strong brands with enhanced ability to accelerate growth and maximizes value for our shareholders, enabling them to participate in the tremendous upside of the combined company,” said Discover President and CEO Michael Rhodes in a statement. “This agreement underscores the strength of our business and is a testament to the hard work of Discover employees. We look forward to a bright future as part of the Capital One family and to providing expanded opportunities for our loyal customers.”

Ahead of the official announcement, news of the deal had been reported earlier Monday by Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. Illinois-based Discover has a market value of about $27.6 billion. Capital One has a market capitalization of about $52.2 billion. It reported $34.25 billion in 2022 revenue.

In August 2023, Roger Hochschild stepped down as Discover’s CEO and from its board, following the company’s July 2023 disclosure of a regulatory review of misclassified credit card accounts and pause of share buybacks. John Owen, a member of the board of directors, served as interim CEO until Discover appointed Rhodes as its CEO and a board member in December 2023.

In November 2023, Discover announced it was exploring the sale of its Discover Student Loans portfolio and would stop accepting new loan applications on Feb. 1, 2024.

The credit card network and issuer, which was No. 273 on the 2023 Fortune 500, had a revenue of $15.2 billion for fiscal 2022, according to Fortune, putting it below American Express — almost $55.63 billion, according to Fortune — as well as Visa ($29 billion) and Mastercard ($22 billion).

Discover reported a net income of $4.39 billion in 2022 and reported a net income of $388 million for the fourth quarter of 2023, down from the $1.025 billion it reported in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Capital One ranked No. 106 on Fortune magazine’s 2023 Fortune 1000 list and No. 386 on its 2023 Global 500 list.

CEO Hunt leaving Va. Credit Union League

Carrie Hunt is leaving at the end of the month as president and CEO of the Virginia Credit Union League, and Chief Operating Officer Karima Freeman will serve as interim head of the trade association, VACUL announced Tuesday.

Hunt, a seasoned political lobbyist, is leaving to become chief advocacy officer of America’s Credit Unions, a new national trade association formed through the merger of the Credit Union National Association and the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU). She starts in that role March 1, according to a VACUL news release from December 2023.

Freeman, who has been with VACUL for 23 years, manages membership services and works with credit unions on dues, as well as overseeing accounting, human resources and IT functions for the league.

“Karima is a proven leader with decades-long relationships within the Virginia credit union system and a deep knowledge of the league’s operations,” NextMark Credit Union CEO Joe Thomas, VACUL board chairman, said in a statement.

Karima Freeman

“Each of us at the league is committed to the success of Virginia’s credit unions,” Freeman said. “I’m proud of what we accomplish through the support and engagement of our member credit unions.”

The league is the Virginia trade association for credit unions and includes 102 member-owned, not-for-profit credit unions headquartered in the commonwealth among its membership. VACUL offers training and operation resources for members, as well as lobbying the state legislature and other governmental bodies on behalf of the industry.

Hunt, a William & Mary law graduate, joined VACUL in 2021, and before that, was executive vice president of government affairs and general counsel for NAFCU, managing its legislative, political, regulatory, compliance and research divisions. In 2019 and 2020, she was named to The Hill’s top Washington, D.C.,  lobbyists list.