Dominion Energy announced Feb. 22 it had reached an agreement with investment firm Stonepeak to sell a 50% noncontrolling stake in the utility’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project for nearly $3 billion.
The deal is expected to close by the end of 2024, if approved by the Virginia State Corporation Commission and the North Carolina Utilities Commission, as well as federal regulatory agencies. Richmond-based Dominion would retain full operational control over the $9.8 billion CVOW project, which is under development 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast. The 176-turbine offshore wind farm received final federal approvals in January and is expected to begin construction in May.
“The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project continues to proceed on time and on budget and consistent with our previously communicated timing and cost expectations,” Dominion Chair, President and CEO Bob Blue said in a statement. “A competitive partnership process attracted high-quality interest, resulting in a compelling partner for CVOW.”
Under the deal, Dominion Energy expects to receive $3 billion — representing 50% of the offshore wind farm’s construction costs through the anticipated closing of the deal by Dec. 31, minus $145 million, the initial withholding amount. If total construction costs remain at the current budget of $9.8 billion or less, excluding financing costs, Dominion will get back $100 million from the withholding amount.
However, if construction costs more than $11.3 billion, the Fortune 500 utility will receive no money back from the withheld $145 million. If the project costs reach $11.3 billion, Stonepeak and Dominion would each contribute 50% of additional capital costs needed to fund construction, but if the project costs between $11.3 billion and $13.7 billion, Stonepeak would not be required to contribute more capital to pay the additional costs, although it has the option to do so.
In terms of structure, Stonepeak would invest in a newly formed Virginia-based utility subsidiary of Dominion Energy Virginia. The transaction is expected to improve Dominion’s estimated 2024 consolidated funds from operations-to-debt ratio by approximately 1% and reduce the utility’s overall financing needs during construction.
In September 2023, Dominion said it intended to sell a noncontrolling interest in the CVOW to lower risk in the project and solidify the company’s balance sheet. In November 2023, Dominion officials said during its third-quarter earnings call that the utility was in the advanced stages of finding a co-investor.
Civic Leadership Institute President and CEO Sarah Jane Kirkland will become Old Dominion University’s associate vice president for corporate partnerships on March 1, 2023, the Norfolk university announced Thursday.
“Sarah Jane is well-known and highly respected in Hampton Roads, especially among business and industry leaders. For many years, she has been fully dedicated to creating connections and producing results that both benefit and transform our region as part of her exemplary efforts with the Civic Leadership Institute,” ODU President Brian O. Hemphill said in a statement.
Kirkland will collaborate with the president’s office and ODU’s office of research, focusing on forming relationships with senior executives at corporations and nonprofits to develop partnership opportunities, such as internships and employment placements, corporate research and development grants and workforce development initiatives. Partnerships could also include executives teaching part-time and businesses and the university co-developing certificate program curricula.
She will also serve as ODU’s point of contact for help attracting new businesses to Hampton Roads and retaining current companies. Kirkland will design and oversee a university-wide partnership council to coordinate corporate account management and help develop proposals.
Kirkland has been with the Norfolk-based Civic Leadership Institute, which aims to connect executive leaders to improve life in Hampton Roads, since 2003. The institute runs an eight-month executive program, recognizes philanthropic leaders with its Darden Awards and hosts a scholars program for ODU and Tidewater Community College students.
Kirkland has served as president and CEO since 2019. From 2016 to 2019, she was its chief operating officer, and from 2013 to 2016, she served as director of alumni engagement. Kirkland was the institute’s program manager from 2003 to 2005.
“As president and CEO of the region’s premier leadership organization, the Civic Leadership Institute, I have been privileged to develop partnerships across seemingly disparate facets of our community,” Kirkland said in a statement. “Due to this work, I have been uniquely positioned to bring leaders together with the common goal of affecting real change in Hampton Roads. I am honored to have an opportunity to continue this great work at Old Dominion University.”
Prior to joining the Civic Leadership Institute, Kirkland was a business development director with Carnival Cruise Line for nearly 10 years.
Kirkland has served on numerous boards and committees in Hampton Roads, including RVA757 Connects, YMCA of South Hampton Roads and the Hampton Roads Regional Transit Advisory Panel.
Eric Weisel, executive director of ODU’s Virginia Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation Center and associate vice president for applied research, chaired the search.
Altria Group Inc., the Henrico County-based tobacco giant, announced Thursday it is partnering with Japan Tobacco Group to sell heated tobacco products in the U.S. and worldwide, placing Altria in direct competition with Juul Labs Inc. and Philip Morris International Inc.
The $150 million deal, in which Altria subsidiary Philip Morris USA has a 75% economic interest in the Horizon Innovations LLC joint venture and Japan Tobacco International has 25%, will include marketing of heated tobacco products in the United States and Japan.
The partnership comes after Altria sank $12.8 billion into a 35% stake in Juul, at the time the nation’s leader in the e-cigarette market. However, Juul soon faced major legal woes, including numerous lawsuits claiming the company had illegally marketed its products to teens. Having settled some lawsuits, Juul is facing possible bankruptcy, and the federal government has said it wishes to ban all Juul products from being sold in the U.S.
In September, Altria opted to end its noncompete deal with Juul, after its $12.8 billion investment was valued at $450 million as of June 30. In August, the company said it had not yet decided to end the agreement. “At this time, we continue to believe that these investment rights are beneficial to us,” Altria spokesperson Jennifer Kelly said at the time. “Therefore, we have not opted to be released from our noncompete obligations at this time, but we retain the option to do so in the future.”
Meanwhile, former subsidiary Philip Morris International and Altria attempted to reunite, but that agreement collapsed in November 2021, and PMI has received the European Union’s approval for its $16 billion purchase of Swedish Match AB, another competitor in the smokeless tobacco space.
Altria officials have long maintained that e-cigarettes and other nontraditional tobacco products are important products to help adult smokers wean off cigarettes, although much of the opposition to vaping products arose from their use by underage smokers. In subsequent years, the federal government has banned fruit and candy flavors in smoke-free products, limiting their appeal to teens.
“We are excited to begin a new partnership with JT Group, a leading international tobacco company,” Altria CEO Billy Gifford said in a statement Thursday. “We believe this relationship can accelerate harm reduction for adult smokers across the globe. We believe ‘Moving Beyond Smoking’ in the U.S. requires multiple FDA-authorized products within each smoke-free category to appeal to a diverse range of adult smokers. We believe that our joint venture and pipeline of heated tobacco products position us well to increase adoption of smoke-free products.”
Altria’s third-quarter earnings fell short of expectations, with $5.41 billion in revenue, down from $5.59 billion expected by Wall Street and a 2% decline from the same period last year. The Japan Tobacco announcement preceded the earnings release today. As of 12:50 p.m. Thursday, shares of Altria’s stock were down 0.93% at $45.96 per share.
According to Altria’s announcement, the deal with Japan Tobacco will produce two products that will reach the U.S. market by the first half of 2025: JTS’ Ploom heated tobacco device, which is similar to the IQOS product removed from U.S. markets last year in a patent dispute with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., and Marlboro heated tobacco consumables, which Philip Morris USA will produce. Altria says that the Marlboro product is “a consumable that meets the definition of a cigarette under the U.S. Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act.”
Earlier this month PMI agreed to pay Altria Group $2.7 billion for U.S. commercialization rights starting April 30, 2024, and Altria’s announcement Thursday says the company does not expect to have commercialization rights when Horizon’s exclusivity requirements go into effect. The company also expects to partner with Japan Tobacco to launch a new heated tobacco capsule product in an international test market in late 2024 or early 2025, as well as starting work on a proposal to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the end of 2024.
A high-profile hire announced Tuesday by Old Dominion University has raised questions about the possibility of a formal merger with Eastern Virginia Medical School, although statements from the two Hampton Roads educational institutions say it’s “premature” to respond to questions about the prospect.
Dr. Alicia Monroe will join ODU in a few weeks as chief integration officer and senior advisor to President Brian O. Hemphill to establish an academic health sciences center in partnership with EVMS and Sentara Healthcare, the university announced Tuesday. The position will be in place for two years, and Monroe, who most recently served as provost and senior vice president of academic and faculty affairs at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, will start Sept. 6, according to ODU.
An employee of ODU with an annual salary of $425,000, Monroe will have an office with at least two full-time employees, and she will also serve as an untenured professor in the School of Community and Environmental Health, pending approval by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) of the School of Public Health, an ODU spokesman told Virginia Business.
“[Monroe’s] expertise and leadership will be critical in providing needed direction and support to the integration management office across all facets of our planning and implementation efforts. This is a significant step forward in providing a robust framework and necessary resources for addressing our region’s health disparities,” Hemphill said in a statement Tuesday.
But the hire takes on additional significance after Hemphill sent a letter to ODU’s faculty and staff earlier this month stating a goal “to develop a comprehensive plan to integrate ODU and EVMS in 2023,” while also noting that “a formal agreement has not been reached as this merger is contingent upon the work of the functional teams, as well as securing additional resources to support this expanded effort.”
Dr. Alicia Monroe
A “joint response” by ODU and EVMS to questions sent by Virginia Business on Tuesday indicates that an agreement to merge the two institutions is not set and is in fact part of the task facing Monroe and her team over the next two years. “It is premature to respond to the question, ‘Is EVMS becoming an arm of ODU?'” spokesman Joseph T. Garvey responded by email. Monroe’s contract ends in two years, he added.
“Dr. Monroe has been selected for a two-year appointment to lead ODU’s Integration Management Office. Once the integration planning and related work are complete, the office and her position would no longer exist. It is premature to respond to the question, ‘Is that when EVMS would become part of ODU?’ as that is the purpose of the current exploratory and planning work.”
Existing agreements
Hemphill’s letter lays out recent plans that have been in the works between the two institutions, which signed an agreement with Sentara to create a health center and are partnering with Norfolk State University to create a School of Public Health.
In response to a question from Virginia Business about why there is currently no formal agreement for the merger of ODU and the privately run EVMS, Garvey wrote, “as the institutions are engaging in the beginning of a comprehensive planning effort … the institutions are being very intentional and thoughtful in bringing together campus constituents and engaging with various stakeholders.”
“In recent months, cross-functional teams, including both ODU and EVMS officials have been working to develop strategies,” Hemphill wrote. Further down, he wrote that nine functional teams are being formed further explore areas including accreditation and faculty affairs, clinical affairs and medical group, communications and branding, development and philanthropy, enrollment management and student affairs and others.
These agreements are in addition to other regional health initiatives EVMS and ODU are part of. In January 2021, Sentara announced a $10 million investment split between ODU, NSU, EVMS and other organizations in Hampton, Newport News, Williamsburg and Suffolk. ODU and NSU each received $2 million to support the development of the School of Public Health, and another $3 million went to ODU, EVMS and NSU for public health and health equity initiatives. The remaining $3 million went to community organizations to address underserved communities. Sentara also donated $2 million to EVMS to support the development of the School of Public Health. In May, Sentara established two new collaborative grants at ODU, EVMS and NSU for collaboration among the three institutions, along with Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, to decrease health disparities in underserved communities.
One point ODU officials emphasize every time another partnership between the university and EVMS is announced, including in the news release announcing Monroe’s hire, is the decades-long relationship between the institutions.
EVMS appointed Dr. Alfred Abuhamad from interim head to permanent president, provost and dean in June.
The two schools are “currently exploring ways to strengthen health-focused academic program offerings, world-class research in both existing and new specialty areas, and state-of-the-art clinical care, as well as expand the workforce pipeline for needed health care workers,” Garvey wrote in response to questions from Virginia Business.
“That academic health sciences center could take shape as the result of an integration of EVMS and ODU,” he added. “All of that work is contingent upon an internal planning process, as well as engagement and support with critical partners.”
Repeating a legacy?
One of Hemphill’s legacies at Radford University, where he served as president for five years, is a 2019 merger between the Jefferson College of Health Sciences and Carilion Clinic to create Radford University Carilion. The merger made Radford’s nursing program the second-largest in Virginia and 22% of Radford’s students are pursuing a degree in a health-related field.
For an April 2021 Virginia Business story, Kay Kemper, former rector of ODU’s board of visitors, commented on the possibility of history repeating itself as Hemphill left Radford to become ODU’s president last year.
“Dr. Hemphill’s successes range from enrollment management to fundraising, and many of his forward-thinking initiatives in such areas as health sciences and partnership-building mirror Old Dominion’s longstanding strengths and priorities,” Kemper said. “We believe he will write an exciting new chapter for ODU.”
Similarly, Abuhamad said Tuesday in a statement, “We are looking forward to great collaboration with President Hemphill, Dr. Monroe and all of our ODU colleagues. In meeting with Dr. Monroe, it is clear that she brings a great deal of energy, expertise and excitement to our growing partnership.”
Editor’s note: The story has been clarified to show that EVMS appointed Dr. Alfred Abuhamad from interim to permanent president, provost and dean.
Virginia Tech announced Thursday morning that it is partnering with Amazon.com Inc. on an artificial intelligence and machine learning research initiative that will have a presence at both Tech’s Blacksburg campus and its emerging Innovation Campus in Alexandria.
Dubbed the Amazon-Virginia Tech Initiative for Efficient and Robust Machine Learning, the program will include doctoral student fellowships, research projects and community outreach, as well as a shared advisory board. It will be housed at Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering in Blacksburg and at the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, which will be in the first building at the Innovation Campus, a $302 million center currently under construction.
“This partnership affirms the value of our connection to Amazon as we scale up project-based learning and research programs in artificial intelligence and machine learning,” Virginia Tech President Tim Sands said in a statement. “Building Virginia Tech’s strength and expertise in these fields will support critical technological advancements and our commitment to fuel workforce development in the commonwealth.”
Virginia Tech played a major role in luring the e-tail giant to Arlington, where it is building its $2.5 billion-plus HQ2 East Coast headquarters, where 25,000 people are expected to be employed by 2030. Tech has started construction of its $1 billion Innovation Campus in Alexandria, just a short distance from HQ2, and the university has pledged to produce about 16,000 more computer science and engineering bachelor’s and master’s degree graduates over the next 20 years.
“We are delighted to collaborate with Virginia Tech in launching this new initiative, which brings together the top talent in our two organizations in a joint mission to achieve groundbreaking advances in robust machine learning,” said Prem Natarajan, Amazon’s vice president of Alexa AI – natural understanding. “The proximity of this initiative to Amazon’s HQ2 will catalyze research efforts that leverage the depth of talent in the Northern Virginia area to address some of the most pressing challenges in AI.”
The Sanghani Center is supported by a $10 million gift from Reston-based Octo Consulting Group CEO Mehul Sanghani and his wife, Hema, who are both Tech graduates. According to the university, graduate and doctoral students, as well as faculty members, will have the opportunity to submit machine learning sponsored research projects for Amazon. Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that focuses on algorithms that can improve performance through experience and the use of data.
Also part of the program will be a group of fellowships awarded to Virginia Tech doctoral students in the engineering school. Each Amazon Fellow will be invited to interview for a paid Amazon internship during the summer after winning the fellowship. Tech also will co-host two annual workshops, as well as training and recruiting events for students, and the partners will establish a collaborative advisory board to provide input for the program’s direction and review research proposals.
“Virginia Tech is growing research and graduate programs in critical disciplines to meet the needs of industry and fuel the tech sector economy across the commonwealth and beyond,” said Julia M. Ross, Tech’s Paul and Dorothea Torgersen Dean of Engineering. “This new partnership with Amazon will fuel ongoing and future investment in research and education in AI-centric fields, and will provide important support for graduate students in these areas. We’re also excited to have engineering faculty and students working alongside industry leaders on these important technological advances and discoveries.”
The Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service announced Tuesday their Advancing Civics partnership to encourage collaboration among business and government leaders.
The Northern Virginia Chamber wants to promote civic-minded leadership, said Clayton Medford, vice president of government relations for the Chamber.
“We’re seeing so much nationally, and even unfortunately in the states, this dialogue around campaigns that is not about that compromise. It’s not about coming to the table and finding solutions to shared problems,” he said, which led the Chamber to think about how it could highlight centric approaches to problem-solving.
The partnership plans to host speakers who demonstrate collaboration and compromise in business or government this year, Medford said. It also plans to provide recognition through leadership awards.
The Sorensen Institute was a natural partner for the Northern Virginia Chamber, Medford said.
“The Sorensen Institute has a long history of providing Virginia’s future leaders with the tools they need to accomplish great things by working together,” Sorensen Institute Director Lawrence Roberts said in a statement. The Chamber’s core values of integrity, equity and community make it a great partner for the Sorensen Institute. … Together, we can make great strides toward fostering a more collaborative approach to solving problems in Virginia.”
Richmond-based health care company StageZero Life Sciences Ltd. has teamed up with a nonprofit started by legendary The Who frontman Roger Daltrey to improve diagnosis and survival rates of teens and young adults with cancer.
StageZero developed Aristotle, an mRNA multicancer panel that screens for several types of cancer in a single blood sample. The Richmond company is joining forces with the nonprofit Teen Cancer America, co-founded by Daltrey and bandmate Pete Townshend, to improve earlier cancer detection in younger people, who often are diagnosed during later stages, when there are fewer treatment options. The iconic rockers also co-founded the Daltrey/Townshend Teen and Young Adult Cancer Program at UCLA Medical Center.
“A lot of times, cancer is not found among adolescents until it’s symptomatic, and it’s really late,” says StageZero CEO James Howard-Tripp. Also, about 50% of Americans aged 18 to 39 don’t have primary physicians or, in some cases, health insurance, so “people are not seeking treatment until they have to,” he adds.
According to statistics from the National Institutes for Health’ National Cancer Institute, more than 88,000 people between the ages of 15 and 39 were diagnosed with cancer this year, with 4.6% of all cancers and 9,130 deaths occurring among this age cohort.
StageZero Life Sciences CEO James Howard-Tripp
A Teen Cancer America board member reached out to StageZero, Howard-Tripp says, and the two organizations are working on a multistep plan to increase awareness of cancer among younger people, as well as working with large national employers that could provide workplace cancer screenings for younger employees. Eventually, Teen Cancer America will publish research that shows the economic costs of cancer in young people.
“Our core mission is to develop specialist programs and facilities for young people with cancer in hospitals throughout the U.S. and to advocate for investment in research that will improve their experience, outcomes and chances of survival. Tragically, late diagnosis and misdiagnosis are more common in young people than other age groups and we are dedicated to supporting any initiative that will change that narrative,” Teen Cancer America Executive Director Simon Davies said in a statement. “The fact that a company like StageZero is particularly interested in the early detection of the rare cancers that affect young people and is supportive of our mission is vitally important to our cause. This can help us to significantly increase awareness around adolescent and young adult cancer and the challenges that these patients face, while also working to improve the testing, detection and treatment that could save these young lives.”
Howard-Tripp says another possibility will be a symposium offering more information on the economic impact of cancer among younger people — as well as a possible visit from Daltry, the pinball wizard himself.
Continuing a yearslong partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University, Bank of America has awarded a $100,000 grant to the school’s College of Engineering Foundation to focus on establishing data science talent pipelines.
New VCU College of Engineering building. Photo courtesy VCU
The idea behind the grant is to develop interest in computer science and other STEM programs for “K to grey,” says VCU College of Engineering Dean Barbara Boyan. Funding will be used to create programming focused on data science education for public school students, but the partnership between VCU and Bank of America will also support mentorships from professionals working for the state’s fourth-largest bank.
The funding will go directly to new curriculum and project development and to support pre-college activities to prepare students for STEM education, Boyan says.
“[The idea is to] plant the seed in their brain that this is an option for them, and then to help them develop the skills they actually need to do it,” Boyan says, “and then, once they’re in engineering school, to actually tackle problems.”
Project teams will be composed of students from engineering, business, humanities and sciences who will be paired with one of Bank of America’s 1,500 local information technology employees and a VCU faculty member for mentorship during the data analytics-focused projects.
“The secret sauce to this is that they work with an actual person in the business world at Bank of America, as well as an ivory-tower-type faculty member so that they can get the benefit of both worlds,” Boyan says.
The VCU-Bank of America partnership dates back to 2007 when the bank donated $500,000 to support the construction of the VCU College of Engineering’s East Hall. Since then, VCU and Bank of America have worked together on STEM programming, teaming up with local high schools and tech education programs, including CodeVA and the Virginia National Center for Women & Information Technology chapter.
“Given our footprint in Richmond … we have a massive technology team here and we’re looking to grow that team,” says Victor Branch, Bank of America Richmond market president. “We want to hire future graduates. We could not identify a stronger, [more] innovative partner than VCU.”
A primary goal of the partnership and grant is to help first-generation college students get into data science programming, and eventually into the tech talent pipeline.
“When they come to VCU, they have the credentials, the prerequisites, to get through the engineering rigor and come out with a job that will be a game-changer for that family and to break that cycle of poverty that they’ve been in,” Branch says. “We hope to and plan to have jobs ready for the graduates when they come out.”
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Sign In
Free Newsletter
