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2023 Virginia Business Person of the Year: Kristen Cavallo
In 2017, Kristen Cavallo and her son, Matt, then a student on spring break from James Madison University, set out to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with a seven-day window to summit. Statistics from Kilimanjaro National Park, last updated in the 2000s, show a correlation between a route’s duration and success rate: Climbers on seven-day routes have […]
No dice: Casino referendum fails again
Richmond‘s do-over casino referendum failed at the ballot box Nov. 7 by a much larger margin than the city’s first casino referendum did in 2021, as roughly 61% of Richmond voters rejected the proposed $562 million Richmond Grand Resort & Casino. Leading up to the election, the casino’s corporate backers, Urban One and Churchill Downs, […]
‘National powerhouse’
From 2017 to 2022, McGuireWoods, with offices in 21 cities, added 36.6% in revenue, and still the state’s largest law firm is pushing for yet more growth. With roughly 1,000 lawyers, 300 of whom are based in Virginia, the Richmond-based firm — the nation’s 50th largest firm by number of attorneys — works hard to […]
‘Smokeless’ Snoop Dogg ad is Martin Agency creation
Known as much for his love of weed as for his music, celebrity rapper Snoop Dogg posted Thursday on X that he was “giving up smoke,” an announcement that raised eyebrows among some fans, while others figured it must be a marketing ploy. To be blunt, it was the latter, and Richmond‘s The Martin Agency […]
Richmond to host 2026 national speech and debate tournament
The Richmond region will host a June 2026 national speech and debate tournament that’s expected to bring 10,000 students and visitors to the region. The National Speech & Debate Association, Richmond Region Tourism and the nonprofit Richmond Forum made the announcement Monday. “I know this will be one of the best tournaments, and I look […]
Carpenter to acquire N.C. foam manufacturer
Richmond-based polyurethane foam manufacturer Carpenter has signed an agreement to acquire North Carolina-based NCFI Polyurethanes’ Consumer Products division, the company announced Wednesday. Carpenter declined to disclose financial terms of the transaction. The NCFI division has about 150 employees, who will join Carpenter’s 6,500-plus employees worldwide. With one location in Mount [...]
Richmond-area mainstay Saxon Shoes moves onto its next step
When Gary Weiner’s parents, Jack and Gloria, opened Saxon Shoes in Richmond in 1953, they mostly carried shoes for children with orthopedic needs. Now, 70 years later, the store has something for everyone and is about 10 times the size of the average shoe store and operates in Henrico County’s Short Pump area. It’s become a […]
No dice: Richmond casino referendum fails by large margin
Richmond’s do-over casino referendum failed at the ballot box Tuesday by a much larger margin than the first casino referendum did in 2021, as about 61% of Richmond voters said no to the $562 million Richmond Grand Resort & Casino. It was not a good night for gambling interests in Virginia, as voters in Manassas […]
Urban One chair, radio hosts slam casino foes on air
Updated Nov. 4 Richmond casino referendum rhetoric took an ugly turn this week, as an Urban One radio host in Richmond compared anti-casino campaigner Paul Goldman to biblical traitor Judas and negatively referenced his Jewish faith — drawing condemnation as antisemitic speech — while speaking on air Wednesday about the casino referendum on city ballots […]
Former Siemens exec charged in Dominion bid-rigging case
A retired Siemens Energy executive is facing a felony charge in an alleged conspiracy to steal its competitor’s trade secrets, helping the German energy company prevail in a winning bid to build a gas turbine “peaker” plant in Chesterfield County for Dominion Energy in 2019. John Gibson, of Winter Park, Florida, was charged in U.S. […]
Richmond-Petersburg pharma coalition wins fed designation
Central Virginia’s pharmaceutical hub received a federal designation that could lead to millions in federal funding in the future, while a 3D printing consortium in the New River Valley and Danville won a $500,000 federal grant, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced Monday. A group of public and private sector partners conducting pharmaceutical research and […]
Medical Society of Va. elects new president
The Medical Society of Virginia elected Richmond-based Dr. Alice Coombs as its next president at the organization’s annual meeting Oct. 14. Coombs, a critical care specialist, anesthesiologist and internist, as well as the chair of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine’s anesthesiology department, is the fourth woman and first Black president of MSV, which was […]
