Patrick Ryan has been named managing partner of Big Four accounting firm KPMG’s Washington, D.C.-area office, the company announced Thursday.
In the role, Ryan will oversee more than 3,000 employees and also will be the firm’s U.S. federal business leader and sector leader. He succeeds Tim Gillis, who is retiring Sept. 30 after 26 years at KPMG.
He will split his time between the KPMG Tyson’s Corner and Washington, D.C., offices, a spokesperson for the company said.
“Patrick is an experienced leader with a deep commitment to serving our clients, developing our people and making the difference for the Washington, D.C., community,” said Lisa Daniels, KPMG’s vice chair for growth and strategy, in a statement.
With a bachelor’s degree in accounting from James Madison University, Ryan began his career with KPMG in 1998 as a senior associate. He went on to work at InPhonic, a Washington, D.C.-based online cell phone service provider that filed for bankruptcy in 2007, and at Dulles-based Integral Financial Group, where he was vice president of accounting and valuation services, according to his LinkedIn profile. Ryan returned to KPMG as a partner in 2011.
Gillis, who began his career with KPMG in 1998, became managing partner of the Washington, D.C., office in 2019.
After a failed development deal and a nearly $80 million payout, VCU Health needs to change the way it is governed, the Virginia General Assembly’s investigative body declared Wednesday. Virginia Commonwealth University’s president has too much room to influence the health system’s operations, the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission (JLARC) found.
State lawmakers directed JLARC to review VCU Health’s governance and capital process last fall, after news broke in spring 2023 that the Richmond health system was planning to pay developers $72.9 million to back out of a $325 million downtown development project with higher costs than the university had anticipated.
Known as the Clay Street Project, VCU planned to build a medical office tower and a multiuse project at the site of the City of Richmond-owned Public Safety Building at 10th and Clay streets. Ultimately, VCU paid about $5 million to demolish the Public Safety Building in a promise to the city — bringing the university’s costs to nearly $80 million.
Additionally, the health system is on the hook to the City of Richmond for about $56 million it agreed to pay the city in lieu of taxes. That is to be paid in $2.5 million installments annually, according to JLARC.
To date, the VCU Health System has paid $1.9 million in fees to the city in lieu of taxes, according to a spokesperson for the health system.
State lawmakers have directed the VCU Health System to “pursue to terminate payments” to Richmond of these fees. A request for comment to Richmond officials was not immediately returned.
VCU President Michael Rao came under heavy criticism over the misstep, including calls from former Gov. Doug Wilder to resign after news of the payout broke in 2023.
The failed project also led to the abrupt November 2022 resignation of former VCU Health CEO Dr. Art Kellermann, who had tried in 2021 to convince Rao and other VCU administrators to not enter into the deal, citing outsize costs to VCU Health, which developers anticipated would pay $650 million over 25 years to lease the office tower. A slideshow presented Wednesday noted that Rao’s cabinet had “strongly advised” Kellermann to sign the lease for the Clay Street development, despite his stated concerns.
Kellermann left his post in 2022 after Rao asked him to resign, and Dr. Marlon Levy became interim CEO of VCU Health and interim senior vice president of VCU Health Sciences, positions he still holds.
Changes in leadership structure
In addition to leading VCU, Rao is president and board chair of the VCU Health System, which generated more than $3 billion in operating revenue in fiscal 2023. During a lengthy presentation Wednesday, Chief Legislative Analyst Lauren Axselle reported that JLARC’s team found that VCU Health “improved its capital process following the Clay Street project but needs to develop a long-term strategic capital plan, strengthen several policies and increase staffing to effectively handle capital projects.”
What’s more, the health system’s leadership structure needs to be changed to “reduce the potential for the VCU president … to have too much influence on [health system] operations and decisions and ensure that the [VCU Health] CEO’s principal focus is on the health system’s strategic planning and operations.”
Five individuals serve on both the health system’s board of directors and VCU’s Board of Visitors, according to JLARC, which found that although collaboration between VCU and VCU Health is beneficial, the two entities would benefit from “a greater number of impartial board members.”
Virginia’s lawmakers could consider amending the health system’s bylaws to eliminate the position of president at the health system and make the CEO its top executive, according to Axselle. Members of the General Assembly could also amend state code to limit the role of VCU’s president on the health system’s board of directors so that the VCU president is a nonvoting member on the board and not eligible to serve as board chair.
Additionally, the health system’s CEO post and VCU’s senior vice president of health sciences role would be held by two people if JLARC’s recommendations are followed.
Other possible changes
Virginia’s lawmakers could also look at changing the code to require the health system to elect a chair every two years and mandate that the chair cannot sit on VCU’s Board of Visitors and can’t be a health system or VCU employee, according to JLARC. Additionally, the agency recommends that General Assembly members consider giving four-year terms, instead of three-year stints, to members of the health system’s board of directors. Lawmakers also could add “commercial real estate” and “finance” to existing expertise requirements for individuals selected for the board.
VCU Health staff should develop a 10-year strategic capital plan for the board to consider, according to JLARC. Additionally, JLARC noted that hiring outside experts can reduce risk on capital projects. VCU Health did not hire a site consultant for the Clay Street project and only hired outside legal counsel after the board approved the project, according to JLARC.
Additionally, the health system needs to have “director-level positions overseeing construction and real estate functions” that report to an executive of the health system. VCU Health also needs to develop staffing capacity “to effectively plan, procure and manage future capital projects,” JLARC’s study states.
VCU Health has filled a vacant director of construction project management position and created a director of real estate position, according to JLARC.
Rao briefly spoke to the commission, noting that he has publicly supported updating the role of the VCU president and VCU Health System board chair.
As for the failed Clay Street project, Rao noted that in July 2021 the health system’s chief legal officer and chief financial officer positions became vacant around the same time. He stated he “asked the former VCU Health CEO to work with available university leadership.”
Even so, Rao said, “the buck stops with me as chair of the health system.”
After close to two years of litigation, bitcoin billonaire Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy, the Tysons-based business software company he co-founded and remains executive chairman of, have agreed to pay $40 million to resolve a tax fraud lawsuit filed by the city of Washington, D.C., according to an announcement Monday morning by the office of the attorney general for the District of Columbia.
It’s the largest income tax fraud recovery in Washington, D.C., history, according to a news release.
The lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, alleged Saylor claimed to live in Virginia, a state with a lower income tax, and Florida, a state with no personal income tax, to avoid paying more than $25 million in taxes to the District of Columbia. From 2005 to present, according to the 2023 amended complaint, Saylor has lived in a luxury penthouse on the Georgetown waterfront and docked multiple yachts on the Potomac riverfront.
In 2009, according to the initial complaint, Saylor combined three penthouses in Georgetown into a single unit, which he dubbed “Trigate.” MicroStrategy employees falsely reported Saylor’s address information, according to D.C.’s office of the attorney general.
“Saylor openly bragged about his tax-evasion scheme, encouraging his friends to follow his example and contending that anyone who paid taxes to the District was stupid,” D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb stated in the release. “This precedent-setting settlement makes clear that no one in the District of Columbia, no matter how wealthy or powerful they may be, is above the law.”
Saylor, for his part, maintains that his home has been Miami Beach since 2012.
“Florida remains my home today, and I continue to dispute the allegation that I was ever a resident of the District of Columbia,” Saylor said in a statement distributed by his attorney, Eugene Scalia, a former U.S. secretary of labor and a son of the late U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.
The statement goes on to say that Saylor settled the case “to avoid the continued burdens of the litigation on friends, family and myself.”
Shirish Jajodia, vice president of treasury and investor relations at MicroStrategy, issued a statement calling the lawsuit “a personal tax matter involving Mr. Saylor. MicroStrategy was not responsible for his day-to-day affairs and did not oversee his individual tax responsibilities. We are pleased this matter is now being resolved. MicroStrategy has not made, and will not be obligated to make, a financial contribution to the settlement.”
The D.C. attorney general’s office sought to collect back taxes, as well as interest and penalties with the suit.
Saylor and MicroStrategy deny violating D.C.’s tax laws and admitted no wrongdoing with the agreement.
D.C.’s False Claims Amendment Act of 2020 allows private individuals to bring actions based on violations of D.C. tax laws against top-earning businesses and individuals over tax fraud. If successful, whistleblowers can receive up to 25% of the funds collected by the district, according to the release.
Tributum, a company registered in Wyoming, initially alleged Saylor failed to pay taxes in 2014 to 2020. After independently investigating the allegations, D.C.’s attorney general’s office also sought to recover taxes that it stated Saylor failed to pay for the tax years 2005 to 2013.
Saylor stepped down as CEO of MicroStrategy in 2022 following an earnings report tallying a $1.98 billion impairment loss on its bitcoin holdings. He remains the company’s executive chairman.
MicroStrategy, widely reported to be the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, reported total revenues of $115.2 million for the first quarter of 2024, a 5.5% decrease compared with the first quarter of the previous year. In April, the company reported owning 214,400 bitcoins, worth about $13.7 billion. With an estimated personal net worth of $4 billion, according to Fortune, Saylor owned more than 17,000 bitcoins personally as of April, in addition to his interest in MicroStrategy.
Tom Johnston has stepped down from The Franklin Johnston Group, the Virginia Beach-based multifamily development and management company he co-founded, the company announced May 30.
Johnston is leaving to pursue other business opportunities, a release stated.
Johnston, Wendell Franklin and his son W. Taylor Franklin as well as Steve Cooper left S.L. Nusbaum Realty in 2013 to form the new firm.
Johnston, who has a degree in business administration from Old Dominion University, completed over 40 apartment communities with an aggregate value of $500 million at the Franklin Johnston Group, according to his company bio. He spent two decades at S.L. Nusbaum Realty and previously worked for the Virginia Housing Development Authority.
Wendell Franklin and W. Taylor Franklin will remain as managing partners of the company. W. Taylor Franklin will continue as CEO, a role he stepped into in early 2023, while Wendell Franklin serves as chairman.
Johnston and Wendell C. Franklin had a three-decade partnership that resulted in the development of numerous apartment communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic, according to the company.
The Franklin Johnston Group has about 700 employees and has a portfolio of about 200 properties located in 10 states and Washington, D.C.
Accenture has named Ed Engles office managing director of its Metro D.C. office, overseeing a region stretching from Baltimore to Richmond, the global professional services company announced Thursday.
Engles steps into the shoes of Marty Rodgers, who has been filling that role for almost a decade while also serving as Accenture’s market unit lead for the Southern U.S. since 2019. Rodgers will continue to lead Accenture in the South.
Engles has led the North America Service Practice for Accenture Song, which provides services including growth, product and experience design and creative, media and marketing strategy, since 2022. He will continue in that role, leading a team of more than 500 employees.
As office managing director for Accenture in Metro D.C., Engles’ responsibilities will include fostering client relationships and boosting community engagement. He will primarily work out of Accenture’s Rosslyn office, according to a company spokesperson.
Engles, who has a degree in marketing and management from Loyola University in Maryland, is active in his community and serves as executive sponsor for Accenture’s 11th Street Bridge project, which supports local and minority-owned small and medium businesses with a mobile kiosk in Washington, D.C.
For fiscal 2023, Accenture reported revenue of $64.1 billion, an increase of 4% over the previous year. The global company has about 742,000 employees in more than 120 companies.
Roanoke developer Ed Walker first tried to lure Artspace, a Minnesota-based nonprofit real estate developer for the arts, to Roanoke for an early 2000s redevelopment project, but Artspace essentially ghosted him.
“It’s very, very, very, very difficult to get Artspace’s attention and to get them interested in a community,” Walker says. “It’s like trying to date somebody that just isn’t interested.”
Artspace sure seems to be swiping right on Roanoke these days, however.
On April 18, Walker held a celebration marking the first anniversary of his Riverdale mixed-use development, where, as part of an agreement with Roanoke’s city government, he plans to invest $50 million through 2040 to redevelop the 120-acre former industrial site into residences, offices, retail outlets and eateries.
Appearing at the event were Artspace representatives who had been exploring bringing a residential community for artists to Riverdale, with up to 44 private studio spaces and up to 67 live/work housing units for artists who make up to 80% of the area median income, which is $48,350 for a one-person household. Shared areas, like gallery space, a clay studio and rehearsal spaces, could also be included.
“This potentially could be our very first actual brick-and-mortar project in Virginia,” says Kelli Miles, an Artspace project manager.
Monthly rents would range from $480 for an efficiency to $617 for a two-bedroom apartment, according to Artspace Senior Vice President Wendy Holmes — “so, very affordable for [the Roanoke] market.” Artspace, which will own the property, will likely hire a local property management company to oversee it.
Next, Artspace will identify sources for about $800,000 in pre-development funding for the project, which could cost $12 million to $20 million, coming from a mix of public and private funding, Holmes says. The earliest construction could begin is 2026.
Founded in 1979, Artspace has developed 58 affordable housing and creative spaces for artists in 22 states.
Since last summer, Artspace representatives have held meetings with Roanoke-area cultural leaders, city officials and business leaders, including executives from Carilion and Virginia Tech, to talk about the project and potential financing.
“Ed is true to his word,” Holmes says. “He knows how to bring all these people together.”
Making sure artists can afford housing is a way to keep them in the community, according to Douglas Jackson, Roanoke’s arts and culture coordinator. “I think it is economic development,” he says.
Khalid Jones moved to Richmond from New York City’s Upper West Side in April to start his new job as executive director of the Virginia Lottery.
Virginia’s River City may move at a slightly slower pace than the city that never sleeps, but Jones found himself instantly at home. Richmond reminds Jones of his youth spent in Little Rock, Arkansas. Both cities are capitals; both are divided by rivers.
In the 1990s, Little Rock had a lot going on, Jones will tell you. It’s the headquarters of Stephens, one of the largest investment banks outside Wall Street, and of course it’s where Bill Clinton as Arkansas governor launched his successful 1992 presidential bid. People who made something of themselves there, Jones says, could make it anywhere.
When Jones visited family in New York’s Queens borough in the summers, they would pepper him with questions about his life in the South. He got the feeling that they didn’t see Little Rock as a bustling hive of activity like he did.
Today when people from out of state ask Jones about his new life in Richmond, he similarly wonders if they’re discounting the city. He wonders if they know that Virginia is a technology hotbed and whether they’re aware the Virginia Lottery in particular has embraced innovation with open arms.
Jones takes the wheel at the Virginia Lottery at an interesting time in the agency’s history. On one hand, for fiscal 2023, the lottery made a record $867 million in profits and $4.6 billion in sales. On the other hand, a coalition of lottery retailers protested Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposal of higher taxes and tougher regulations on convenience store skill game machines by refusing to sell Virginia Lottery tickets on April 15, a ploy repeated a few days in May. The governor said in mid-May he would continue to work with state lawmakers to come to an agreement on a skill games bill, ending the protest.
Even in less tumultuous times, running the agency is a big job. In addition to managing the lottery, Jones also oversees licensing and regulation of the state’s nascent online sports wagering and casino gaming industries.
After graduating from Wake Forest University and Stanford Law School, Jones spent nearly a decade at different law firms, specializing in defending financial institutions in large-scale government investigations.
He then decided he’d rather be paid by the idea than by the hour, and became a managing partner at SourceRock Partners, an investment firm focusing on real estate, media, sports and technology. In 2015, Jones co-founded Echo Fox, a now-dissolved esports organization, with actor and former NBA player Rick Fox.
Through his investments in Echo Fox and other gaming businesses, Jones developed a relationship with the Arizona State Lottery and helped to build that lottery’s Ultimate Playlist, a free-to-play, promotional mobile app.
In 2020, Jones co-founded the Kolier Group, a business consulting firm that counted the Multi-State Lottery Association, Paramount Global and Universal Music Group among its clients. A year later, Jones also took on a role as a partner at All American Licensing, which, among its other services, develops merchandising programs for brands like Powertown Wrestling and the Smithsonian Institution.
In an April interview with Virginia Business, Jones talked about how he expectshis varied work experiences will pay off in his new position heading the Virginia Lottery.
Virginia Business: How does someone get hired to lead a state lottery? It’s not the kind of job where you fill out an application on your computer, is it?
Khalid Jones: I think my career path, it took me to a point where I developed some of the relevant skills unwittingly. Around 2019, a business partner of mine had a relationship with … Gregg Edgar [then executive director of the Arizona State Lottery], and we started talking. He was really interested in innovation at that point in time.
In my investment company [SourceRock Partners], we had made some investments in the digital space, in the gaming space, and so we had started to develop an expertise there, not in lotteries specifically. [Edgar] saw a lot of crossover between what was happening in the digital space and what the future of the lottery would look like.
Through working with [Edgar] … [I] started having a more formal working relationship with the Arizona Lottery that blossomed into a working relationship with the [Multi-State Lottery Association]. … Over the course of five years, [I became an industry expert,] finding mentors like him … and [by] having a broad lens on what was happening in the industry nationwide and even worldwide, [by] looking at trends and speaking at conferences, [by] making myself educated and really just diving in with both feet and exploring the broad tapestry that the lottery is, especially from the standpoint of beneficiaries.
One of the questions during [the Virginia Lottery hiring] process [was], “Well, why is this something that you want to do?”
I [said] quite flatly, “I’ve never had a job before, and I’m not going to ever have a job again where I can realistically say I have a goal of putting a billion dollars back into public education.”
It’s just a lofty thing to be able to say. Unless you’re Jeff Bezos, if you just write the check yourself, no one can realistically say that. That’s what I go to work every day trying to do.
[But] there’s really no application [to be lottery director]. You put your foot forward in the industry and you help out in the ways that you can. And in this scenario, there were some folks who thought that this might be something that I was both interested in and capable of, and [I] went through the process, and I was fortunate that the governor agreed.
VB: What goals do you have for your first year as the lottery’s director?
While he’s focused on continuing the lottery’s successful record, Jones also hopes to innovate, saying he could see the lottery pursuing targeted entertainment brand licensing agreements for games on its online iLottery platform. Photo by Shandell Taylor
Jones: You walk in, and you have things that you want to accomplish, but whatever you want to accomplish … when you have success that precedes you, your first mission should be to come in and learn, acclimate, ask questions and make sure that you’re buttressing the success that’s come before you.
The phrase I’ve been using is, “I’m not going to come in and start turning all the knobs.” The first order of business is to look in the past, and the lottery had a lot of success that came before me. … Obviously, my main goal is to make sure we’re maximizing the dollars that get sent back to K-12 public education.
I would say my secondary goal is … I want to make sure that the Virginia Lottery is always at the forefront of innovation and that we are leaders in this field.
VB: What future innovations are in store at the Virginia Lottery?
Jones: [There are] a couple things. So, the first is thinking about our online growth. The Virginia online lottery is the largest in the nation. It’s grown the fastest in the nation. At some point in time, that growth curve will flatten. Innovation looks like one of the techniques that we can use to ensure that that growth [curve flattens] as slowly as possible.
And then also, retail, for the sales side of the lottery, is always the backbone. … As the online lottery continues to progress, [the Virginia Lottery must ensure] that we’re bringing the retailers along with that experience, so using innovation to continuously connect those experiences between online and offline.
The casinos and the online sports games, they’re built on technology. Technology drives what they do. Technology has to drive what we do from a regulatory standpoint, so we don’t get left back. … We will at some point in time be convening an AI task force within the lottery. How do we use that tool? How do we use it responsibly?
We just attended a problem gambling task force meeting this past week, and we talked pretty extensively about the ways that in the future technology will be used to support that function as well, because that’s something that’s very, very, very important to us here.
VB: The Virginia Lottery, like the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority, differs from other state agencies in that it operates more like a business than a government entity. How do you handle that?
Jones: That’s true. You obviously have to think like a business but have the responsibility of the government as well. Fortunately, you’re given some leeway to do that. We can market. We can advertise. … I think that you have to take your business hat and put it on real snug.
I think a lot of times there’s areas of government where the best answer is the one that’s always the safest answer. We’re not in that position. We’re in a position where we have to be strong in the marketplace, come up with ideas.
VB: How will your experience in law, licensing and consulting help the lottery grow?
Jones: I have a background in law and defending regulated entities. I’ve obviously never been in a casino or a gaming regulatory posture, but [I understand] the mindset of those who are regulated. It really is not the posture that you’re coming in and lifting under every rug and trying to find a violation. That’s not our role. The role is to ensure the safety and fairness of the players and ensure that the operators are following the rules. At the end of the day, it’s really undergirding the integrity of the system as a whole.
The relationship should always be one where they understand that we’re not there to be primarily punitive; we’re there primarily to be protective of both the players … [and] them as well because we don’t want a bunch of operators not following the law.
I think I draw a lot from what I’ve seen in the industry as a whole. Obviously, my background with doing some of the licensing matters. [That] will help bring partnerships. I think that the way that lottery partners with outside industry could be enhanced and can be increased. That’s something that I’ll want to do almost immediately and bring to bear some relationships that I have.
Last year, [the lottery] had record sales, record growth. This year, fingers crossed, we’ll be able to do the same. There are professionals that have been in this building for a really long time that have been doing an excellent, excellent job.
The analogy I’ve been using internally is if you take over the head coaching job of the Kansas City Chiefs, you’re not going to start telling Patrick Mahomes how to throw the ball.
This really is for me one agency. It really is. We don’t have this agency, and that’s the lottery, and that agency, and that’s gaming/regulatory compliance. There is much more crossover to me in terms of mindset, whether it’s technology, whether it’s learning from others, whether it’s ideas, whether it is taking a leadership position in all that we do that I apply across the business lines.
VB: What does partnering with industry look like?
Jones:For example, right now the lottery has in market a Willy Wonka ticket. That’s an example of a licensing agreement that would happen. I’ve got some ideas on different ways we can do that to maximize profitability, maybe bring different partners in.
You don’t want the liability that you printed a bunch of tickets and they went out and nobody bought the tickets. Well, through our iLottery platform, we obviously don’t print tickets. Maybe there’s an opportunity to work with more niche partners or work with larger partners for very specified items.
I’m not promising this, but this is an example: You have the opportunity to work with a movie studio, let’s say. In the previous world, you would have to say, “All right, I’m going to work with this movie studio, we’re going to find a great property, we’re going to print X number of millions of tickets and market the hell out of it, and we’re going to cross our fingers.” Maybe there’s an opportunity to work with that same studio and say, “Can we do something smaller and more frequently, but for something really cool? Can we have someone win a role in your next movie that comes out of the studio?” Maybe that’s something that we could have … that’s recurring and that players know that it’s really cool and it’s going to come. We do it through our iLottery platform, our online platform, and therefore, we don’t have as much liability of printing tickets.
VB: On two occasions this spring, a coalition of lottery retailers temporarily stopped selling lottery tickets to protest Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed changes to a Virginia bill on skill games, which included capping the number of machines allowed statewide. How does that impact the Virginia Lottery’s relationship with those retailers?
Jones: I know that that’s been an issue that’s been ongoing before I got here. I think it’s finding a way to, first of all, have a conversation. We absolutely take no position on the skill games themselves, but we obviously are going to support our retailers in any way we can, both before and after. I think that’s a large chunk of that answer.
Potentially, we would have to regulate the skill games as well, which makes us a part of their business in that sense from a regulatory standpoint. We’ll be with them no matter what. We’ll continue to build those relationships. They’ll continue to know how important that they are to us.
VB: Virginia Lottery’s branding has stayed fairly consistent since it launched in the late 1980s, even though the agency has recently taken on new responsibilities like regulating casinos. Do you plan to change up any of that branding?
Jones: “Stay tuned” maybe is the answer.
VB: Is there anything else you want Virginians to know about the change in leadership at the lottery?
Jones: It’s not surprising that Virginia Lottery sits where it’s at. I feel really fortunate to come into this. This is not a reclamation project. It’s not a rebuilding project. This is not anything like that. We get to ride a stallion that’s in full gallop and just making sure that it continues on that.
Boxer Gifts, a British manufacturer of specialty, often wacky gifts, including the “poo timer” and “old age emergency pants,” will invest $1.4 million to establish its first U.S. light manufacturing, distribution and wholesale operation in Harrisonburg, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Tuesday.
The project is expected to create 15 jobs.
“After selling fun gifts in the United States for over 40 years, we’re thrilled to announce that our first U.S.-based warehouse is set to open in Harrisonburg,” Thomas O’Brien, president of the family-owned company, said in a statement. “After years of distributing our products in Virginia through [third-party logistics companies] and getting to know the wonderful people and the state, we knew this was the perfect place for us. ”
Boxer Gifts plans to retrofit a new facility it purchased in Harrisonburg “to increase capacity and efficiency in accessing its customers in the U.S. market,” according to the statement.
The specialty gift shop purchased a 10,000-square-foot warehouse and .74 acres at 955 Sawtooth Oak Circle on March 15 for $640,000, according to Thomas O’Brien.
Boxer Gifts’ new U.S. operation will allow faster shipping times for U.S. customers, the ability to increase the range of shipments and increased capacity for direct-to-consumer customers, according to a LinkedIn post by the company.
Jamie O’Brien launched Boxer Gifts in 1982 when Thomas O’Brien was 2 years old. The company boasts about being first to introduce novelty condoms to the market. In 2012, it added a gift book division, which now sells titles like “What is Your Dog Really Thinking?” and “Stoner’s Optical Illusions.” Thomas O’Brien became president of the company in 2018, according to LinkedIn.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the City of Harrisonburg to secure the project and will support the company through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program, which provides consultative services and funding to companies to support employee recruitment and training activities.
Jason Wells will join the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research as executive vice president of manufacturing advancement on June 3, according to a release from the Danville-based economic development organization.
Wells, who has nearly three decades of experience in high-performance manufacturing, replaces Todd Yeatts, a former senior manager for government operations for The Boeing Co., who left the job in August.
Wells hails from Kyocera SGS Tech Hub, a manufacturing and research hub in Danville that’s part of the cutting tool division of Kyocera, where he was president. Previous to that, Wells worked at Illinois-based YG-1 America, a global cutting tools manufacturer, as director of U.S. Tech Center Operations and for SGS Tool, which Kyocera purchased in 2016, as global product manager and director of product development and marketing.
In addition to being the primary inventor on six product patents recognized in several countries, Wells serves on several boards, including the advisory board of Great Opportunities in Technology and Engineering Careers (GO TEC), a vocational education initiative that introduces middle school students to fields like precision machining, welding and IT coding and networking.
In his new role, Wells will oversee the operation and strategic direction of the Center for Manufacturing Advancement, which helps manufacturers introduce new and emerging technology into their operations and provides other services to industry leaders. Additionally, the CMA is also home to the Navy’s Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence, which is used to accelerate and scale additive manufacturing parts and qualification processes.
Wells’ responsibilities will also include overseeing additional training programs, such as the Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing program, a Navy and Department of Defense initiative designed to train individuals for skilled trades like welding, CNC machining, quality control inspection, nondestructive testing and additive manufacturing. In 2025, the program is expected to reach full capacity and will graduate between 800 to 1,000 individuals annually.
“As the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research continues to expand into a leading hub for high-value, high-tech companies and growing, targeted industries like advanced manufacturing, placing globally-minded and accomplished leadership at the helm is critical,” said Telly Tucker, IALR’s president, in a statement. “I am excited to welcome Jason Wells to IALR and have full confidence that his comprehensive industry expertise and proven commitment to the community will position us well to serve the manufacturing optimization, technology and workforce training needs of advanced manufacturers.”
VF Corp., a Denver-based global apparel and footwear company with brands including Vans, The North Face, Timberland and Dickies, plans to close its distribution center in Martinsville in March 2025, the company confirmed Wednesday.
“As part of VF’s Reinvent strategy, we have evaluated how we are shipping products to best meet the needs of our customers,” VF spokesperson Ashley McCormack explained in a statement. “As a result, we have made the difficult decision to close the Martinsville … Distribution Center. This transition will deliver operational efficiencies, consolidate our operations and reduce real estate costs.”
During a conference call Wednesday afternoon, Bracken Darrell, who joined VF as the company’s president and CEO last summer, called the strategy “tough medicine that we needed to return to growth.”
VF’s plans include “fixing the Americas,” turning around the Vans brand, reducing costs and paying down debt, according to a news release issued about the company’s earnings for the fourth quarter, which closed March 30. VF experienced a 13% decline in revenue for the fourth quarter, compared with the same period last year.
“We closed the fiscal year with further inventory reductions, helping us deliver $1 billion in operating cash flow and over $800 million in free cash flow,” Darrell said in the press release.
McCormack did not immediately confirm how many employees will be impacted by the Martinsville operations closing. VF has between 250 to 500 employees in Martinsville, according to the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. website.
The lost jobs will sting less than in the past because Henry County, once known for its thriving textile and furniture industries, has strived not to be dependent on any one type of employer in recent years, according to Henry County Administrator Dale Wagoner.
“While we don’t like the news of the business departing, I think our intentional diversity of industry over the past many years will help soften the blow,” he said.
Wagoner pointed to Eastman Chemical, which makes window and paint protection films and established a facility in Henry in 2013, and Pennsylvania-based metal packaging tech company Crown Holdings, which announced plans in 2021 to build a $145 million facility at Commonwealth Crossing in Martinsville.
Henry also has focused on recruiting smaller businesses, Wagoner said, rather than depending on a single business with thousands of employees, “where you know it’s going to wipe our entire community with one business leaving.”
County officials are actively working with VF to find a tenant for the 500,000-square-foot building, according to Wagoner.
“It is a modern, well-maintained facility,” he said. “[VF] used a state-of-the-art distribution methodology, so it would be a good fit for a distribution style business to walk right in and get up and running quickly.”
In 2021, VF undertook a $10.2 million expansion at the Martinsville facility to increase distribution capacity and speed. Then-Gov. Ralph Northam approved a $225,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Henry County in winning the expansion.
Wagoner said the employees who are losing jobs should be able to find new opportunities locally: “There are many job opportunities in our community. Many of them are very good jobs with some of our top industries here in the area.”
Wagoner stressed that Patrick Henry Community College offers workforce training programs. The layoffs, he said, “may encourage some folks to learn some new skills and some new trades that can readily be put to work in our community.”
The biggest focus for VF during the “transition” will be the plant’s workers, McCormack said.
“We will support the team through the final days of operations,” the statement said. “The entire VF organization extends its deepest gratitude and appreciation to our teammates who work within the facility for their steadfast dedication and commitment for over the last two decades.”
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