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opinion

Jun 27, 2024

Beauty and the C-suite

Virginia Business’ July issue cover art represents a significant amount of time and thoughtful planning — especially in considering what image we want to convey to you, the reader. From our viewpoint, the Women in Leadership cover should express strength and confidence — attributes that this year’s 38 award winners demonstrate daily as executives. A […]

May 30, 2024

Pivot points

Earlier this year, when I was invited to speak to a Henrico County Rotary chapter, I was asked several questions commonly heard these days by journalists. Do sources pay us to appear in our magazine stories? No. As an independent media outlet, we are not pay-to-play; we decide who and what we write about and […]

Apr 29, 2024

Flying off the glass cliff?

You’ve no doubt heard of the glass ceiling — the barrier above which women couldn’t rise professionally — but have you heard about the glass cliff? It’s not as familiar a term as the ceiling, but the glass cliff is real. It’s what happens when a woman or someone from another marginalized group is put […]

Apr 1, 2024

Which way the Venn blows

It feels like one of those logic puzzles high school students grapple with on the SAT: If Delegate Sally passes a law to require utilities in her state to generate all their electricity from renewable, carbon-free energy sources like wind and solar by 2045, what is the latest year CEO Tom’s power plant can stop […]

Jonathan Wolfson, Cicero Institute (L), Steven Taylor, Stand Together Trust
Feb 29, 2024

To support a more inclusive workforce, Va. lawmakers must unite around this bill

Virginia’s worker shortage is one of the commonwealth’s biggest barriers to economic growth and prosperity: According to data from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there are just 60 available workers for every 100 open jobs statewide. But Virginia’s talent-starved labor market is hardly unique. Nationally, there are seven workers for every 10 available jobs. The mismatch betwee[...]

Feb 28, 2024

How’s your confidence?

Business always has its up and downs. We’ve all been through more than a few. As au courant as the dot-com economy might seem, that bubble floated skyward decades ago, bursting in 2002. It wasn’t just a small dip. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the tech stock-heavy Nasdaq index rose by 800%, […]

Feb 11, 2024

Why Alexandria’s new entertainment district is everyone’s business

As lawmakers negotiate the future of a $2 billion deal to build a new entertainment district in Alexandria, leaders across public and private sectors in the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia region are weighing the potential benefits. Without discounting concerns of local residents, I would like to present how this entertainment district will help Northern Virginia’s future growth and […]

Jan 30, 2024

Saving grace

When Del. Don L. Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth, was sworn in on Jan. 10 as the first Black speaker of the house in the Virginia legislature’s 405-year history, he also was likely the first leader of that illustrious body to have served time in federal prison. Reminiscent of the literary trials of Jean Valjean, Scott’s is […]

Dec 31, 2023

Got news?

If you’ve been missing out on some local news events lately, it’s likely because local news is increasingly underreported. A report from the University of North Carolina found that between 2005 and 2020, the U.S. lost 2,100 — or roughly one-quarter — of its local community newspapers. Four years later, this trend toward “news deserts” […]

Nov 29, 2023

Pot of gold

Placing aside the morality of marijuana use, let’s consider how much money Virginia is currently leaving on the table without a regulated, taxed recreational cannabis market. In 2020, directed by the Virginia General Assembly, which was then under Democratic control, the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission conducted a study on legalizing marijuana in Virginia. […]

Sep 28, 2023

A game of political football

Starting in 1966, the team formerly known as the Redskins began its RFK Stadium sellout streak. For decades, tickets for home games were harder to snag than Taylor Swift tickets today. Divorcing couples battled over custody of season tickets, and the team reportedly had a 100-year-plus season ticket waitlist. That changed in the Dan Snyder […]

Aug 30, 2023

A powerful history

Welcome to the fourth edition of the Virginia 500 — The 2023 Power List. Our hope is that you will find it to be an insightful and helpful guide to the commonwealth’s top leaders in business, government and higher education. Virginia’s long reputation as a power center — producing eight U.S. presidents, including George Washington, […]

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