2024 Virginia Business Person of the Year: Robert M. Blue
Bob Blue has a “no jerks policy,” which he attributes to his upbringing in Albemarle County. “We don’t always agree. In fact, we shouldn’t agree,” he clarifies. “It doesn’t mean that we all just hold hands and sing ‘Kumbaya,’ but what it does mean is that we should treat each other respectfully.” As Dominion Energy‘s […]
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 […]
2022 Virginia Business Person of the Year: Jim McGlothlin
Jim McGlothlin had never really thought much about paintings. He was more of a music guy, a fan of Elvis, whom he saw in concert six months before the King’s 1977 death. But the art of the deal — in this case, winning a valuable artwork at an auction — was a familiar feeling. “That’s […]
2021 Virginia Business Person of the Year: Bruce Thompson
Standing on a hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, the Cavalier Hotel is a callback to a time when Virginia Beach was a sleepy little resort town inside Princess Anne County. Opened in 1927 as the largest brick building in the state, the Cavalier was a product of the Jazz Age. Over the years, the Y-shaped […]
War and peace
Like a lot of bosses in spring and summer 2020, Phebe Novakovic confronted challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. It threatened lives and economies. Managers weren’t sure when some customers would be able to pay their bills. Employees were anxious; clients were understandably skittish. With travel shutting down, in-person sales demonstrations were curtailed. But unlike most […]